


To the stars

by Moonprincess92



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Titanic Fusion, Character Death, Disasters, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Pre-Rogue One, Space Titanic, not jyn and cassian i promise there will be room for both on the floating space door
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-05-09 03:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonprincess92/pseuds/Moonprincess92
Summary: “My name is Jyn Erso and I need help.”Held captive since she was eight, a desperate Jyn sends a message to the Rebel Alliance for help. Cassian responds. Though a luxury starliner is hardly the best or safest place to rendezvous and steal top secret Death Star plans - or to fall in love - both still happen regardless… the rest you already know.I.E. a Titanic AU that yall totally didn’t ask for but get anyway





	1. The abyss

**Author's Note:**

> the answer is yes, i HAVE gone a little insane. this is one of those ideas you see floating around and think 'man i want that, but i don't have the energy to do it myself'.........only i apparently went Fuck It, Ima Do It anyway lol 
> 
> thank u to Mel @skitzofreak for believing in me and encouraging me, i love u girl x 
> 
> also for the record, i will promise right here and now that BOTH jyn and cassian will survive this fic! everyone else is fair game, but for those two at least there will be room on the floating space door hahahahahah 
> 
> PLS comment and let me know if u like this idea, i promise to do my best with it! MUCH LOVE  
> xoxo

 

Cassian didn’t care who he was slamming his elbow into. K-2SO’s hulking body at least cut a wide path through the crowd, but it wasn’t damn near fast enough. People yelled, called out goodbye, waved enthusiastically at the small figures crowded around every viewport and he could barely hear himself think. He was supposed to like crowds. They made it easy to blend in, easy to disappear. Easy to slip a hand into a pocket or drop a grenade without notice. By all accounts, he should be thankful.

But because of this crowd,  _they weren’t going to make it_  –  

“Kay!” he called as they finally broke through the edge of the crowd. The loading ramp was only several feet ahead of them and he didn’t even hesitate when he noticed that it was already retracting. There were too higher stakes on this one.

They  _had_  to make it.  

“I calculate a 15% chance of us getting on board,” K-2 shot back.

“That’s good enough – jump!”

Cassian leapt for it. If there was any other Imperial droid in the universe that could somehow sound exasperated while jumping across empty space, it was K-2SO. Cassian wasn’t sure whether it was the Force being with him or his droid catching his shirt at the last minute, but either way they both hit the gangplank just before it was beyond their reach. The security officers at the port doors naturally both started yelling,

“OiI!”

“HEY! You can’t do that!”

“We’re passengers!” Cassian hastily held up the scandocs that had gotten them into this mess in the first place. Praying that they didn’t shoot them on sight, Cassian stayed still and let the gangplank gradually roll them in, hoping that it wasn’t obvious that he was clutching at the stich in his side. When they finally reached the doors to the ship, the officers were quick to snatch up the scandocs. 

“Joreth Sward?” one officer said. 

“Yes. And my droid, which you can see I also have approval for.”

“And your reason for travelling?”

“Business,” Cassian barely refrained from rolling his eyes. “My employer wants me at a meeting on Karaiah, it’s all on my boarding pass. Can’t you idiots read?” 

The looming presence of K-2 was probably the only thing that let him get away with his tone. While technically his cover worked for the Empire, it was a rather low-level position. Enough to get him places where it counted, but not high enough for him to be remembered. The perfect cover. It took longer than he would have liked, but eventually the two officers shared a look and handed the scandocs back to him.

“Welcome to  _Titanic_ ,” the officer said. 

* * *

 

“Next time,” K-2 said as they made their way through the winding corridors of the ship’s inner hull. “I might suggest sticking to the usual Alliance-approved forger.”

“Like I told you, Crevin wouldn’t have gotten them to us in time.”

“The one you went with  _also_  nearly didn’t get them to you in time,” K-2 pointed out.

“We got on the ship, ok?” Cassian bit out. They’d barely even had time to take it in as they’d been so concerned about actually making it on in time. Over 800 feet long,  _Titanic_  was easily the biggest public passenger starliner on this side of the galaxy. It boasted being able to take up to 2,500 passengers over ten different decks, ready to transport any being from any leg of life from one side of the galaxy to the other. Anyone from high-ranking Imperial officers to beings of any race trying to find a new life,  _Titanic_  could take them all. It wasn’t exactly the ideal place for his objective – weeks until they reached their first port on Corellia, nowhere to run, nowhere to escape, essentially trapped – but he hadn’t exactly had much choice. 

They needed to get somewhere discreet to regroup. He was clearly on the wrong deck, since he was surrounded by Twi’leks and Bothans and many others all sending him equally hateful and terrified glares. He heard snatches of every language under the stars, passengers trying to find their allocated cabins, families trying to find children who had already managed to disappear in the chaos, stewards attempting to direct the heavy traffic through the thin corridors. One suddenly reached out to him, hand retreating from his shoulder hastily at the look on Cassian’s face.

“Erm… sir?” he began. “I think you’ll find the deck you want is up these stairs. You won’t find any of your people down here.” 

His mouth twitched in the barest hint of a grateful smile, turning immediately to start climbing. Your people.  _Their people_. Cassian barely knew what the point of any of it was these days. The level of luxury quite obviously changed the higher they climbed. He kept his mouth shut, but trained a narrowed gaze on the wider corridors, the ornate banisters, the elaborate portraits of the Emperor and other high-ranking generals that decorated the walls. He was shown to his room almost immediately, the steward more than happy to point out the private refresher, the room service, the complimentary access to the power-station that could re-charge his droid whenever necessary.

“Just let any of us know if there’s anything else you need!” the steward trilled at him.

Cassian gave a tight-lipped ghost of a laugh as the door slid closed behind him. K-2 stared unforgivingly around their extravagant first-class suite, though his optical sensors quickly narrowed in on him at his soft exclamation.

“You are displeased?” he asked in genuine surprise. “I find that this will do.”

“Of course it will,” Cassian said. “That’s the problem.”

But they didn’t have time for it. Thinking of the galaxy’s issues with status and credits was a waste of effort, no matter how much the satin sheets on the bed made him cringe. This was Joreth Sward’s world, and he was not Cassian right now. Time to act like it. “Either way,” he carried on, throwing his pack down onto the plush couch without pity. “we have until Corellia to find out if this is all worth it.”

“You believe that she is telling the truth.”

“I never said that,” Cassian said back.

They couldn’t afford to automatically believe anyone. The holovid had been sent to the rebellion only three standard days ago, heavily encrypted and containing information that no one quite knew what to do with. After their analysts had spent the better part of a day breaking through the encryption (“Whoever did this was bloody good,”) Cassian had watched as a young woman flared up into view. 

“ _This message is for the Rebel Alliance to Restore the Republic_ ,” she’d said, her blue image flickering in the dimmed light of the war room on Yavin. “ _My name is Jyn Erso, and I need help. My father was a scientist, working for the Imperial government in weapons design. He spent the last fifteen years helping to build something he wanted no part in, but had no choice. It’s huge, the biggest weapon the Empire has ever thought of, with the power to destroy entire planets. I know you must have heard rumours, you have to believe me. They call it the Death Star._

_“My father and I have been held against our will since I was eight-years-old. My father so that he can be forced to build this thing, and me to motivate my father. We knew they’d keep building it with or without him, so he did the only thing he could think of, to create a design flaw that can potentially blow the whole thing, if only you can find it. Five days ago, construction on the Death Star was finally completed. Five days ago, my father was murdered.”_

Cassian remembered watching the woman’s face in that moment, the subtle clenching of her jaw, the tightness of her eyes. There was a raw kind of energy emitting from her through the holovid, a desperate need that could only come from someone who’d had all their free will taken away from them their entire life. This was someone finally being able to make a choice.

She’d carried on,

“ _In three days, the design plans for this Death Star will be transported alongside myself and Director Orson Krennic of Advanced Weapons Research. We will be boarding the starliner Titanic in Coruscant, departing five standard weeks later at Scarif where the plans will be safely archived. I need you to send someone to come and get me before we reach Scarif. If you care about the galaxy, if you want to save planets and billions of people from dying, then… please. Please come and get me. I’ve programmed this holovid to self-destruct thirty seconds after transmitting. Thank you_.”

And the holovid had ended.

Naturally, it had only taken seconds for the dead silent war room to break out into hysterics. A lot of council members had been totally prepared to forget they’d ever received this message and pretend nothing was happening. Of course no one wanted to imagine that there was a weapon on this scale out there somewhere in the universe, and with the reasoning that if such a thing existed then they surely would have heard about it by now, it was easy to justify burying it.

But Cassian had been chasing down rumours for months now, all of his missions classified, all of them telling him the same thing.

 _It’s a planet killer_.  

They’d had the better part of two days to throw together an old cover and send Cassian out to Coruscant to see if this Erso’s words had any truth to them.

“I calculate a 97% chance that you already believe her,” K-2’s voice box was almost smug as he no doubt saw Cassian replaying the message in his mind.

“Well in that case, there’s still 3% of me that has his head screwed on straight,” Cassian muttered. “Come on. Time to scope out the first class lounges.” 

* * *

 

He found her on the stern deck.

It was absolutely not where she was supposed to be. She was supposed to be up in first class with all the other Imps where Cassian had been subtly searching the past several hours.  _Titanic_  had had enough time to come out of orbit by now and it had been announced that they’d made the jump to lightspeed a long time ago. And hell, the stern deck was a mostly empty viewing platform accessible to the lower classes (because who the hell wanted a view of the ship’s exhaust?). But for some reason it’s where he found her, sitting on one of the tiered steps, arms around her knees and hair in disarray around her face. Compared to the pulled-back look of the woman in the holovid, she looked… well, like a hot mess. 

Slowly, he approached from behind. He sank down onto the step next to her, a respectable distance between them and keeping his eyes on the currently open viewport of exhaust expelling out into the lines of hyperspace. K-2 back in their suite was no doubt ready to listen to every word that was said as he waited. Cassian couldn’t be the one to make first contact. He had to let her come to him. Let her have control. It was what she craved, she would be unable to resist seizing it eventually.

Sure enough,

“It’s beautiful.”

Cassian glanced over at her. She hadn’t taken her eyes away from the view and he huffed in bemusement.

“A lot of people up in first class would say otherwise.”

“A lot of people up in first class are idiots.”

“Forgive me,” Cassian said. “but aren’t you from first class?”

“How would you know?”

“The outfit doesn’t exactly scream  _poor_.”

The woman he knew as Jyn Erso glanced down at the black dress that surely cost more than Intelligence's entire budget allocation. “Fair point,” she admitted.

He held her gaze for a beat longer than he probably usually would before turning back to the viewport. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was waiting for her to say, because it certainly wasn’t going to be ‘hi, are you the rebel intelligence agent sent to rescue me?’ and he certainly wasn’t going to give away his position to her. He’d seen her face on that holovid, he’d heard the desperation in her, but at the end of the day, he had to treat this as professionally as possible and the reality was that this could very easily be a trap. Send out some message about a Super Weapon and the Alliance sends their best agents in to stop it.  _Bam_ , Jyn shoots him where he stands. As much as he wished he could just get right to the point, he forced himself to stay staring out into hyperspace.

“They call it the Abyss,” Jyn quietly mentioned, then.

Cassian didn’t reply, but she carried on as if she knew he’d be listening. “The stern of a ship… it’s called the Abyss because the exhaust fumes get lost in hyperspace. It all just… disappears. Like it was never there. It falls into the Abyss.”

“I suppose,” Cassian said. “it’s a rather common thing to be able to relate to.”

“Yeah, who hasn’t wanted to throw themselves into the abyss from time to time?” Jyn scoffed a little.

“I feel you.”

For a moment she didn’t say anything. Then, he felt her moving, sliding herself tentatively closer to him, still with a respectful amount of space in between, but clearly showing that they were in this conversation together. Her hands were held in a ball in her lap, her neck too tight with tension to come off as casual. She was speaking the truth, or as much of the truth as she dared.

“So where are you going, then?” he asked her.  

Jyn had looked over at his words and finally, they were actually meeting each other’s gazes.  He could see the woman from the holovid in there, but buried somehow, like it was just another persona to put on. Remain professional, remain in control, and you stay alive. The messy-haired girl next to him was worn out, tired. Perhaps only a few short decisions away from actually throwing herself out into the Abyss.  

“Where are any of us going?” she said.  

“Somewhere,” Cassian shrugged. “Isn’t that why we’re all on  _Titanic_  in the first place? We all have a destination we’re trying to get to, whether that’s a figurative or literal place.”

“Where’s your literal place?”

“Corellia. Again, yours?”

“Hell.”

“That’s… not literal.”

“I know," Jyn said. “Just trust me, I’m trying to think of ways of not going there.”

“Was the Abyss an option you were considering?”

It was a bit bold. Jyn shot him a look, but ended up simply shrugging and saying, 

“I’m still trying to decide whether I’d rather that over hell. I’d prefer to stay alive, you know?”

“Good.”

“You care whether I live or die?” she said.

“I’ve only just met you, but I care whether anyone lives or dies,” Cassian pointed out.

“ _Exactly what part of this conversation is allowing you to determine whether or not we can trust this woman?_ ” K-2’s exasperated tone shot in through the comm in his ear.

“I wish everyone thought like you.”

 _You really don’t_ , except Cassian didn’t say that out loud. He thought terrible things sometimes. Usually about himself, but he also had no mercy for the Empire, or anyone who sympathised with them. He’d done cruel things, hideous things for the rebellion and most of the time he hated it, but he understood the need. Killing people who deserved it, killing innocents for the greater good, he did simply what had to be done. He wasn’t a good person, but he at least tried… he liked to think that Jyn would understand. If what she said was true, then she’d probably been made to do all sorts of things too in the name of the Empire. What would someone ask of a weapons scientist’s daughter? Cassian could think of too many options.

But she was here. She was apparently reaching out, and if this was for real it was his job to take her hand.

“Your life matters,” he said, quietly. “Hell, everyone on this ship is trying to reach a better life somewhere. You hold on until you get there, ok?”

“Like I said, I don’t have much waiting for me at my final destination.”

“What are you going to do about that?” He was getting dangerously close to pressing her, which he didn’t intend on doing in this first conversation.  _Establish a rapport. Gain first impressions. Back the hell off and begin observations_. 

Jyn paused for a while, so long that he didn’t think she was going to answer. But looking out into the Abyss, she said,

“I’ve done something. Whether or not it works remains to be seen.”

He looked over at her and she gave him a look that wasn’t quite a smile, but at least more than disinterest. It was a look of  _I’m trying_. He matched her expression, only a few seconds later he noticed her eyes shift away to somewhere over his shoulder. Suddenly, the expression changed to a flash of pure terror before hastily composing itself into one of grim determination.

“Shit,” she cursed. “look, I’m sorry, I know you don’t know me at all and owe me nothing, but if you could do me a favour–” She moved to a crouch, as if prepared to spring as she gestured over his shoulder. “–if the man in the white coat asks you if you’ve seen me, please say no. Was nice talking to you.” 

“What–?” Cassian glanced back imperceptibly to see the man in question. He was accompanied by at least three bodyguards and appeared to have entered the room to search it. By the time he looked back to where Jyn had been next to him, however, she had literally disappeared. Trying not to show his surprise, he let his eyes flick around but caught absolutely no sign of her throughout the viewport.  _Kriff, she’s good_.

He barely had time to compose himself when the man in white was descending on him. “Excuse me, sir,” he cut in, somehow managing to sound both apologetic and urgent at the same time. “but I am looking for my companion. She is slender, dark hair, pale skin, wearing a black dress. Have you seen her?”

Cassian glanced up at who he was assuming was Director Orson Krennic.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “I’m afraid I don’t remember seeing someone like that at all.” 


	2. The ballroom

K-2SO was  _not_ happy about how this mission was currently going.

“This is not advised,” he grumbled as they hovered on the edge of the ballroom. “We are supposed to be assessing her reliability. You established contact, now we are supposed to watch her from a distance, see what she does, who she goes do. If you start hanging around her, she’s bound to put up an act.”

“We’re supposed to be getting to know her,” Cassian countered, pretending to sip from his champagne glass. “From my experience, you can’t know someone unless you actually talk to them.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“I’m willing to risk it.”

Cassian technically had no business communicating with one of the security droids that lined the walls of the ballroom, but K-2 had point blank refused to let Cassian come without him in the same room this time. His attempts to observe Jyn Erso were so far proving rather difficult to analyse. He’d started to feel a sense of someone in that stern viewport: someone in pain, someone who had reached the end of the line, someone who was still somehow willing to fight back. Jyn’s seemingly impeccable talent at masking herself, however, wasn’t making it easy for them. Cassian was convinced that he would be able to find the real her the more they actually spoke seeing as if there was anyone who was qualified enough to see through masks, it was him. 

However, K-2 was utterly convinced that this was a _Terrible Plan_.

“What if she murders you?” he said.

“I’m sorry, is that a statistical possibility?”

“Anything is!”

“The numbers, please?”

K-2’s rotors rumbled a little in irritation, but eventually he growled out. “Probability of murder… 6%.”

“See? Crowded room, plus the potential that she’s looking for a way out, she’s not going to kill the only person who has genuinely spoken to her the last several days.” His observations had at least managed to reveal _some_ things. Jyn Erso had all the looks and grandeur of someone who was free to do what they wanted, but they had been quick to see that Krennic actually kept her on a very short leash. She couldn’t go anywhere without Krennic (or at least 2 of his bodyguards) knowing about it. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t eat, couldn’t do anything at all without his permission first. She was toted around after him like a particularly shiny trophy; something to show off and introduce to every Imperial general on board the  _Titanic_. She smiled and shook hands and held polite conversation, and she was very good at it to the point where Cassian actually started to doubt the tightness of her lips and the dead look in her eyes. 

But then Cassian would watch her give her bodyguards the slip sometimes, like she had clearly done before speaking to him on that first day. At first he had hoped for and perhaps anticipated witnessing some kind of rebellious behaviour, but instead of doing anything untoward she would usually just go and… _hide_. She would hole herself up in small maintaince cupboards, or blend in with the quieter places of the ship. It was almost as if she didn’t actually care about escaping or attempting to contact the Alliance once more. It was like they were the only times she could ever be truly alone. 

Honestly, it was kind of… sad ( _he usually wanted to stop watching in those moments_ ).

She was still good, though, good at hiding and disappearing to the point where he was starting to suspect that she had to know he was tailing her, or at least know that  _someone_  was. If he wanted to build their rapport, he had to keep the trust. He had built a trust on not ratting her out to Krennic, but it would mean absolutely nothing if she eventually caught on to him shadowing her.

“ _Fine_ ,” K-2 eventually conceded, like he knew he would. “but I will be listening to  _everything_.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything less,” Cassian said. 

He placed his undrunk champagne on the nearest roving platter and moved forward into the crowd.  _Titanic_ , of course, provided nothing less than absolute luxury to the highest paying travellers, including any facility one could think of (plus some others Cassian would have literally never thought of). The ballroom usually filled every night with Imperial officers, rich socialites and others from the world of the wealthy, all looking for a good time.  _Titanic’s_ band was made up of two humans, an Arconian and a Kli'aari, the heavy, slow music crooning out over the heads of the dancing couples. Jyn stood obediently at Krennic’s side, her face carefully neutral. She could have been thinking about anything. Cassian hadn’t exactly thought of an opener before he’d come over here, but he quickly conjured up one as he approached and he noticed Jyn’s eyes widen a fraction in recognition upon seeing his face.

“Good evening, sir,” he said pleasantly, extending a hand to Krennic. “I believe we spoke the other day, you were trying to find who I assume is this lovely lady right here?”

“Oh, of course,” Krennic replied at once, although Cassian was willing to bet that he literally couldn’t remember a thing about him. “How rude of me, allow me to introduce myself – Director Orson Krennic. Advanced Weapons Research.”

“Joreth Sward,” Cassian shook his hand. “Scribe for General Ryne.”

“Oh, Ryne is incredible at what he does,” Krennic said. “It must be a pleasure to work directly for him.” 

“Of course, sir,” Ryne certainly was very good at bombing civilian towns until their governments eventually surrendered to the Empire, but now wasn’t exactly the time to dwell on it. Instead, he looked to Jyn and extended his hand once more, exclaiming, “and are you going to introduce me to the lady?”

“This is Jyn Erso,” Krennic provided with a touch of possessiveness. Jyn gave a fake smile as she accepted his hand, her fingers clenching just a little too tight around his own. “She has been a protégé of mine ever since she was small! Just as intelligent as her late father, may the Force be with him.”

“I apologise, miss,” Cassian said, meaning every word.

Jyn’s face flickered for less than a second.

“Thank you,” she answered, emotionless.

“If you wouldn’t object,” Cassian was still holding her hand, but he shifted his grip now so that he was supporting her. “might I ask Miss Erso to dance with me?”

“Go on, dear,” Krennic shoved on her shoulder cheerfully, pushing Jyn closer to Cassian and the dance floor. “There’s not many men left here who will take you, after all.”

She said nothing as Cassian threw Krennic a wordless laugh before leading her through the crowd. However, once there were several bodies between them and Krennic was finally lost to the depths of the ballroom, Jyn immediately turned to him and said,

“Thank you. For not calling me out to Krennic.”

“Of course,” Cassian said at once. “he… doesn’t exactly strike me as a friendly type.”

“Oh, he comes off as friendly,” Jyn’s voice went low, almost a growl. “He puts on the charm, but it’s all an act. Thank you again, for getting me away. Don’t worry, you don’t have to actually dance with me.”

“It's ok, I – wanted to –” His words faltered a little as she stared up at him. Spooking her was the last thing he wanted to do, so he stayed utterly still, half expecting that she would pull back. He hadn't exactly considered the idea that she might not even want someone that close and he cursed in his head.

However, she slowly stepped forward, hand reaching up to grasp his own. He let his other hand snake around to her back, resting right between her shoulder blades, offering a small smile. Dancing was good. It provided a time to talk with no one else able to easily overhear, and had the added buffer of moving around in case the conversation dried up fast. She had let him into her space, accepted him as someone who was on her side. 

_Establish trust._

The style of dance suitable for an Imperial ball was without a doubt the most boring he’d ever once had to learn, but it at least didn’t require a lot of concentration. He noticed that Jyn had also apparently been taught how to dance at some point in her life, since she followed his lead without thinking. “So… Joreth Sward?” she eventually said and he nodded. “I’m Jyn. I guess we didn’t have time for introductions the first time we met.”

“I guess not. How long did you manage to stay away for?”

“About another hour after talking to you,” Jyn said. “They always find me in the end.”

“If you ever need an alibi,” Cassian shrugged.

She smiled a little, and he was fairly certain it was genuine this time. “Thanks.” They paused in conversation as he turned her under his arm. Catching her once more, Jyn then asked him,

“So where are you from?” 

It sounded innocent, though something in her tone told him that she would figure out a cover answer immediately. He might be a liar by trade, but she was apparently well versed in seeking them out. Unwilling to risk the tentative connection he was trying to build, he decided to tell the truth. 

“Fest.”

“ _Fest_ ,” Jyn repeated, clearly not expecting that answer. “Shit… cold there, right?” 

“That is certainly one way to describe it.” It was hard to know considering he hadn’t actually stepped foot on the planet since he was six, but still.

“Sorry, but your accent doesn’t exactly sound like you’re from Fest.”

“ _CASSIAN,_ ” K-2’s outraged voice cut in through the comm. “ _WHAT EXACTLY IS YOUR PLAN HERE?_ ”

Deciding to ignore that, Cassian again didn't lie. “I left when I was young. Brought up all over. The accent tends to change a little depending on where I am.”

In reality, he actually hated the Coruscanti accent that he put on for this cover. And for a moment as he stood there with this woman, he felt that same kind of horrified dread that had flooded him the first moment he had walked onto  _Titanic_. Down on the lower levels he had been amongst his people, and yet he still hadn’t belonged there. Even now amongst the elite and wealthy, he still wasn’t where he was supposed to be and he was starting to wonder when exactly he had started losing parts of himself like that. 

( _wondered whether he would ever get them back–_ ) 

Shaking his head hastily, he turned the question back on Jyn. 

“What about you?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

“I was born on Vallt,” she said. “but raised on Coruscant basically forever.”

“By Krennic?”

“By my father,” Jyn said, raising her jaw.

Cassian went a bit softer on her. “I’m sorry about your father,” he said. “If it helps, I lost my parents too.”

“You did?” Jyn said. Her eyes lit up with something a little different than just interest. She probably hadn’t been able to speak about this to anyone until now. There was a need in there to connect to someone who would understand and so he squeezed her hand lightly and reached out. 

“I was young,” he admitted. “but it stays with you. You never forget.”

“I lost my mother when I was young, but I’d always had Papa until now,” Jyn murmured. “Does it get easier? Being alone?” 

“It gets harder before it gets easier.”

Jyn nodded, dropping her head away from his eyes. By the time she snapped back up again, she was plastering on a smile and adjusting her grip on his hand. “Karking hell, look at us!” she half-heartedly joked. “This isn’t polite dancing conversation.”

“What is?”

“I don’t know – what do good Imperial girls usually talk about?” Jyn rolled her eyes a little. “The quality of the music, the amount of people here, blah, blah, blah.”

“This band  _is_ good, though.”

“Fun fact,” Jyn pointed out. “Those band members have never actually played together before until now. They were hired from varying symphonies and first met in Coruscant ten days ago. I was talking to them earlier.”

“You never would have guessed,” Cassian said, eyeing the band who indeed played like they’d been working together for years.

“Mmm. Krennic doesn’t like them, so naturally I love it.”

“Why is Krennic even on  _Titanic_?” Cassian asked, careful to not reveal information he shouldn’t already know. “As high ranking as he is, wouldn’t he have his own private transport?”

“He does,” Jyn said. “but you know what they say,  _Titanic_ is the height of luxury. You have to do it at least once.”

And he chose his maiden voyage as the journey that would transport the Death Star plans, if such a thing existed. It was smart. On his own transport, there was a much higher risk of outside attack. But no one could possibly attack from the outside on  _Titanic_ , they would have to board and infiltrate. Stealing the plans from under his nose and remaining on the ship until port was significantly riskier, and Krennic was obviously smart enough to realise it.

“How’s that luxury holding up so far, then?” he asked.

Jyn shrugged non-committedly, but stepped in a little closer. “I don’t really care for the over-decoration… but good music and good company… that, I’m down for.” 

He didn’t quite know what to say in response to that, so he just carried on twirling her around the dance floor. The music changed smoothly as the band transitioned from one song to the next, fast and slow, strong and soft. His heart was racing for some reason, feeling a pulsing undercurrent of something whenever she caught his gaze or he span her under his arm and she would actually let out a laugh. It was that kind of raw energy that he’d gotten from her holovid message being let out for a change instead of being constantly supressed, held back in Krennic’s presence. 

It was kind of beautiful. 

Speaking of Krennic, however, if there was one thing the man didn’t like, it was clearly the two of them dancing for so long. The longer they stayed together, the more his look intensified from across the room, until eventually, one of his bodyguards was sent over and forcibly stepped in between them.

“Miss Erso,” he said, fake sweetness coating his voice. “You must let others have a dance too, it’s not fair otherwise.”

The insult she muttered under her breath wasn’t a surprise, although the fact that it was in Huttese was. Where the hell had she learnt  _that?_ Being held by the Empire, he knew that Jyn couldn’t have possibly learnt it from her captors – most likely a prisoner at some point, or perhaps the holonet. What else had the woman taken upon herself to learn?

(He needed to know), 

She was about let herself get dragged away, when he quickly cut in, “You’ll let me say thank you to my dance partner, won’t you?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but loped forward and quickly kissed her cheek… although it may not have looked quick to the bodyguard. In actuality, he leaned forward, hands gently resting at her sides for balance as he pressed against her ear and whispered,

“If you trust me, meet me at the grand staircase at 2300.”

Her expression said nothing except the polite goodbye they were supposed to be sharing. But she held his gaze all the way until she was swept up behind all the dancers.

Once he was back at K-2SO’s side, the droid just shook his head.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” 

“So do I,” Cassian said.

* * *

 

The grand staircase was a major feature of  _Titanic_. The mahogany gleamed under the light, the bannisters polished and curved, stretching all the way up from the first class dining room to D deck. It was a stunning piece of architecture, one that K-2 took great pleasure in rattling off the stats about and that Cassian was trying to empty out of his brain as he stood at the halfway point, at the crossroads where the staircase branched off to either side. He honestly didn’t know whether Jyn would actually turn up. Most marks were easy to figure out eventually and for a while there he had been certain she would come… but Jyn hid too much of herself that he truly didn’t know where she was at. 2300 was late, though. Any true captive of Krennic’s was to be watched at all times and likely not allowed out at this point without raising suspicion. If she wanted to be here, he was certain she could do it, but…

“I hear the concept of the staircase was actually made up by the designer’s wife.”

“Surprisingly, I didn’t know that fact yet,” Cassian turned around, relief breathing out.

Jyn smiled as she walked up to join him. She was sans bodyguards and wearing a battered leather jacket over a vest and trousers. Nothing like her usual get-ups of fancy dresses. “Is this who you really are?” he gestured to the outfit and she threw back.

“I’ll answer if you tell me who  _you_ really are.”

His throat closed over. Ah. So they were at that point.

Cassian could only nod.

“I think you better come with me.”

She did, and K-2SO was  _not_ happy to see her once he’d let her inside their suite. She faltered a little at the sight of the giant security droid, but he was quick to jump between them and insist, “He’s friendly! You can trust him.”

“ _CASSIAN, ARE YOU INSANE?_ ” 

“…I promise,” he added, weakly.

“Charming,” Jyn noted, folding her arms at the droid.

K-2SO wasn’t the least bit subtle in hauling Cassian over to his side. “THIS was your plan?” he said. “Bring her here and what? Reveal everything?”

“She was starting to catch on, Kay, and besides,” he glanced back at Jyn. “I think we can trust her.”

“Oh, you’ve already determined this? After two conversations and barely any observation?”

“Look, stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Jyn snapped. “I haven’t got long before Krennic’s idiots realise that I’m missing, so you better say everything that I think you’re going to say before I just walk on out of here myself.”

Cassian sighed and gestured for Jyn to sit down on his couch. She eyed it gingerly and only sat once he did. He extended a hand and said,

“My name is Captain Cassian Andor, Rebel Intelligence.”

Jyn took it.

“You got my message.”

“We got your message, yes,” he nodded.

“Then you know what’s at stake here,” she shook his hand once briskly before pulling back. “You have to help me get the plans, you have to get me the  _fuck_ off his thing and away from that bastard–”

“That’s what we intend to do–” Cassian tried to cut in, except K-2 gave a loud crunch of his gears in the background. From experience, Cassian knew he could take that as a scoff of derision. Jyn turned to glare at the droid and added,

“ _He_ doesn’t look like he’s that on board with helping me.”

“He just doesn’t like it when he’s behind on the plan.”

“I still maintain this is a terrible idea,” K-2 announced without shame. “She could still be working for Krennic for all we know.”

“That man murdered my father,” Jyn said, voice very carefully controlled. If Cassian didn’t watch it, she was going to leap at him and come away with his K-2’s head.

K-2 didn’t respond to that, which was probably a very calculated reaction on his part. Antagonising the only person who had information was probably not a very good idea, and even K-2 knew that. Cassian turned back to Jyn now that the threat of more murder was over and said,

“Look, I’m going to be frank. There are a lot of Alliance council members who don’t believe you. I think the main thing is that they don’t  _want_ to believe you, because honestly I don’t want to either… but I do,” He met her equally strong look, not looking down. “As horrific as this Death Star sounds, it fits a lot of rumours that I’ve been personally chasing down for a while now. I know this thing must exist, and if you say there’s a way to destroy it, then I 100% believe you. The only thing is that we will have to have those plans in order for the council to believe you as well.”

“We can certainly get those plans,” Jyn insisted.

“Good. Then we have a deal?”

“You get the plans, I get away from Krennic,” Jyn nodded. “Deal.”

“I still don’t like this,” K-2 apparently felt like pointing out.

“Is he always like this?” Jyn asked.

“You get used to it.”

“Wonderful,” Jyn glanced around her vaguely. “Have to say, your room is much nicer than mine. The rebellion really springs out for their agents, huh?”

“It’s just part of the cover.”

“Joreth Sward, a secretary or something, right?” Jyn raised an eyebrow. “Your fake boss must pay you a lot.”

“I’m rather fortunate.”

“I’ll say,” Jyn sighed, slightly wistfully. “Technically I have my own room, but it’s connected to Krennic’s. I can’t lock it and his bodyguards are always at either door.”

“How did you get out tonight, then?”

“Easy,” Jyn said. “Maintainance ducts.” 

Cassian stared. He suddenly had the mental image of this woman crawling through the system of pipes and ducts that made up the ship's structure and had to force himself not to smile. If they pulled this plan off, she was someone the rebellion was going to want at the end of it. He hoped that he would be able to convince her. 

“I mean, eventually they’ll get bored waiting for me to come out and realise that I’m gone,” Jyn carried on then, “but I escape on a regular basis. It’s not like there’s anywhere else for me to go on this damn ship.”

“Except the Abyss, right?”

She looked at him then like she hadn’t quite expected him to remember that conversation. She went quiet for a moment before eventually saying,

“Not going to lie, I honestly thought about it for a moment.”

“I’m not going to judge you.”

“Good,” she said. “but then I considered the reality of it and figured, no. Do you know what happens to an unprotected body in space?”

“Unfortunately. The whole lack of air pressure making you swell up,” Cassian waved a hand dismissively. “Holding your breath will rupture your lungs…”

“And depending on what’s out there you could burn or mutate before eventually suffocating to death.” 

“Wait, I thought you freezed first?”

“There’s nothing much to conduct heat in space,” Jyn said. “So no, you’re unconscious in seconds and asphyxiating in minutes.”

“Oh, well. At least you have a minute to be rescued.”

“Plenty of time.” 

He met her gaze across the couch. She was the kind of person who didn't just look at you with their eyes; she used her entire body, entire soul. She did everything intensely, and he feared for a moment that her look might just knock him clean off the couch and onto the floor. This was the kind of woman his older brother's would have warned him about, had they not died so long ago ( _"Don't even try, bro," they might have laughed, shoving his shoulder. "She'll eat you alive!"_ ). But they spoke so easily, the rapport coming off both of them in waves, and for a rather long moment, Cassian sat and figured that if he wasn't careful here, he was going to be seriously, _seriously_ fucked. 

“…I can survive in space,” K-2 decided to helpfully, and loudly, declare then. 

Finally, he could look away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU SO MUCH to those who have commented, i love you guys!!!! Honestly, I had no idea whether this idea was working and I still don't know if it will continue to work, but so long as you let me know you're enjoying it I will keep going!! 
> 
> I hope this chapter was ok, Cassian's POV is seriously fuckin hard guys lol 
> 
> MUCH LOVE (also pls reblog me on tumblr as well i'm @moonprincess92nz hahahaha)   
> xoxo


	3. The party

Captain Eden Smyth hated the opaque shields that covered the bridge’s viewport of hyperspace.

She liked watching the mass of elongated stars and nebulae, planets and asteroids, all merging together as they travelled faster than the speed of light. Of course, if one stared at it too long, hyper-rapture would eventually drive you insane. Still, at this point she was sure that her body had spent more of its time in hyperspace than out of it as it captained the  _Titanic_ across the galaxy.

“Captain Smyth,” her first officer called. “We’re reaching the Corellian hyperlane. Navigate down now to realspace?”

“Not yet,” Smyth frowned. “We’ll never make it to Corellia on time if we keep powering down this early.”

Not to mention that there were a few rather high-up Imps on board who were extremely anxious to get to their destinations on time. She didn’t know exactly what cargo was being transported on this journey – the manifesto had been convinently classified, even for her – but Smyth figured that whatever it was, it meant that there was absolutely no way she wanted to face it if they were late to port. 

“Noted, Captain,” the first officer nodded. “Awaiting your command.” 

Smyth ran her fingers over the smooth lines of her uniform. Perhaps one of these days she would retire. She’d been thinking about it for a while, especially as regulations got tighter and the Imperial presence in the industry got stronger. She would finally be able to get out from under the Empire’s thumb, find a nice house on the beach somewhere…

She sighed. Until then – 

“Roger that, Officer.”

* * *

 

“His routine is the same,” Jyn explained. “which thankfully makes things easier. After dinner, he typically stays in the common rooms, making the rounds, playing nice, blah, blah. I don’t usually have to go along with that unless he specifically says. It’s the longest amount of time he’ll stay away from the plans, so it’s our best bet.”

Cassian was forced to rush to match her pace. “Krennic was obviously smart when he thought this through. We can’t take the plans before we port, there’s nowhere to go. We’ll have to literally wait until we reach Corellia and hope that we can escape with whoever else is disembarking. Otherwise we’ll end up at Scarif.”

“That’s too much waiting around and not enough time to pull it off,” Jyn frowned. He could sense the tension in there and he found himself tugging on her wrist, pulling her to a halt in the middle of the busy promenade. “I don’t want to get anywhere near that place.”

“ _I hear Scarif was quite the holiday destination with a beautiful tropical climate_ ,” K-2 snarked in Cassian’s ear. “ _You know, before the Empire occupied it_.”

Cassian saw the shell of the girl in front of him. He’d quickly figured out that there were a lot of layers to the woman that was Jyn Erso, and that her professional, simpering, obedient layer was nothing like the ones underneath. Underneath seemed to be an entire labyrinth that he couldn’t figure out. One second he figured she was determined, strong, unafraid of anything; the next, she would be standing like she was now, someone who had been manipulated and hurt her entire life. He didn’t quite know what to make of her.

He realised that he was still holding her wrist, and he hastily let go.

“Jyn,” he said. “you are not going back to him. You have my word that I’ll get you out.”

“You can’t promise that.”

“Fine. I’ll do my best, then.”

She stared at him and quite honestly, it was a little unnerving. Eventually, she glanced away, eyes flickering to the floor as she replied,

“No one has ever made me that kind of promise before.”

“ _She’s right to point it out, this is an unwise promise to make_ ,” K-2 chimed in.

He knew it was. That was why he was making it.

“You’re welcome,” he said, simply.

She smiled then – an actual  _smile_  – before reaching out and yanking on his sleeve. “Come on, then,” she insisted, picking up the maddening pace once more. She practically tore through the people exploring the promenade, right past all the shops and stores selling what felt like everything in the galaxy, past a small stage where the band from the night before was now playing to a small crowd, eventually dragging him out onto what seemed to be the bow viewing platform.

“What’s the rush?” he asked, allowing himself to get pulled along beside her.

“The only part of this ship that’s been worth it so far,” Jyn answered, practically elbowing people out of her way. “But if you wanted a decent view, we should have gotten here way earlier, come on–”

The viewing platform was… well, titanic. The dome covered the entire front bow of the ship, where clearly the best views would eventually be. It was already crowded with people right at the front, so they had to settle for a spot along the starboard side, pressing up against the glass railing that kept the crowds away from the actual dome, the only thing between them and the realities of hyperspace beyond. The viewing platform also ran over several levels above them, where Cassian noticed that passengers of other classes were also able to watch. They were, of course, further back than them and unable to access the bow completely, and he found himself turning away with something churning away at his stomach. Someone shoved into him from behind, forcing him to move further up the railing and he accidentally pressed up against Jyn’s back and side as a result. She flinched a little and he quickly muttered,

“ _Kriff_ – sorry–”

“It’s ok,” she replied. He tried to back away, but there were too many still pushing him, keeping him quite locked in against Jyn. His arms were awkwardly folded in between them, but the only other comfortable place to put them would be to hold onto the rail on either side of her hips and he couldn’t possibly trap her like that – 

“You all right back there?” she asked him.

“I – there’s just a lot of people and I don’t have any room–”

She reached back and gently tugged on his arms, bringing them around her without preamble.

“It’s fine,” she said, simply.  

Luckily, he couldn’t think about it too much, because the dome was opening.

He didn’t know what exactly to expect once it opened. More hyperspace? There was only so much one could look at before you had to look away. But the crowd remarkably hushed as the dome split at the top and opened down either side, revealing the sudden mass of stars beyond. He was so close that he almost felt, rather than heard, Jyn’s intake of breath at the sight. They were clearly not in hyperspace anymore, instead moving through the star clusters all around them and able to see dead ahead a planet that was so big it looked like they were right on top of it. The most remarkable thing, though, was the marble of colours that swirled over the planet’s surface. Reds, greens and purples mixed interchangeably throughout the atmosphere with no discernable patterns. 

It had to be one of the most beautiful things Cassian had ever seen.

The crowd was so transfixed by the sight that Cassian almost didn’t want to speak too loud. But he murmured to Jyn, “What is it?”

“The planet is called Mendka,” she said, head tilted back so that she could take in the entire sight. He could almost see the colours swirling in her eyes. “Uninhabited, the atmosphere is poisonous to most sentients, but the gases cause all the colours. They say it’s one of the best sights in the entire galaxy. I’ve always wanted to see it someday…” 

He could see why. It was impossible to look away.

“We must be switching hyper-lanes,” he muttered. “That’s why we’ve come out of hyperspace.”

“The  _Titanic_ is at least good for something,” Jyn said back.

He didn’t know how long the two of them stood there, but it must have ended up being for a significant amount of time. By the time he was glancing down, the crowd had thinned out considerably and there wasn’t exactly a need for them to be pressed so close together anymore. He almost didn’t want to bring it up. Wouldn’t moving make it even more awkward, anyway?

_Karking hells, what was he thinking?_

“ _Cassian, incoming, incoming–”_

“Jyn! There you are.”

She didn’t jump – clearly, she was too well trained for that – but he felt the tension suddenly shudder over her at the sound of Krennic’s voice. Cassian’s head whipped around and hastily stepped back from Jyn like he’d been scalded. However, as he forced his face blank, he knew immediately that he’d still fucked up from the narrow, piercing gaze that Krennic was sending him.

“Hello, Sir,” he said anyway, nodding at him politely. “Great view.”

“Yes, quite,” Krennic barely paid him attention before snapping back to Jyn. “I’ve been looking all over for you, there are some people I want you to meet before we all head to dinner.”

“Of course,” Jyn simpered. Her knuckles tightened over the rails of the observation deck.

“You can regale all the wondrous tales of the things you have seen out here,” he added, only slightly mocking as he led her away.

When he was younger, Cassian used to be frightened at how quickly he could fall into a cover. His ability to put on any face at a moment’s notice wasn’t exactly a skill one usually wanted to boast, and he wondered how the hell he’d gone from being terrified of it to simply being indifferent. Jyn, it seemed, possessed the same skill. Had the years hardened her as well? He almost wanted to be scared again. So lost in his head, he nearly didn’t notice that he hadn’t exactly been left alone yet. Krennic had apparently doubled back, striding up to him without announcement before stopping at his side, staring up at Mendka swirling down on them.

“A word of advice, Mr Sward,” he said without looking at him. “I would remember your place here.” 

“My place, sir?”

“Yes. It is not your credits that earn you first class, and you would do well to remember that. Secretaries don’t converse with women like Miss Erso.”

Cassian shoved his hands into his pockets, fingering the collapsible blaster there against his side. “And what if I was to say that this is a free galaxy,” he mentioned, lightly. “and that social classes are all a load of banthashit?”  

“Then you might find that some of my friends will come by to… ensure that you reconsider your opinions.”

So tossed out into the Abyss. Noted.

“I hear you loud and clear, Director Krennic.”

“I’m so glad we agree.”

* * *

 

 _Titanic_ cycled through day and night at even intervals, according to galactic standard times. The lights would power down, shops would eventually close, and the nightlife of the ship would take over. The casinos were always alive of course, but became thriving after the artificial nightfall. It was places like these that they ended up meeting, hidden amongst crowds between Sabacc tables or with heads down at the bar. No longer safe to meet with Krennic knowing, they struggled to coordinate for a few days, although Cassian was left wondering why they still had to coordinate in the first place. 

“We can’t keep doing this,” he said in undertone, the two of them pretending to be immersed in watching the game. “The plan is solid, but Krennic is onto us, we can’t risk the operation by meeting.” 

“Don’t you want to just get out?” she replied. 

Cassian watched the millionare they were currently standing behind reveal his cards with a flourish amongst a lot of appreciative cheers. “Of course,” he said. “but unfortunately the fate of the galaxy is more important.” 

Jyn huffed a little at him, glancing away in barely concealed frustration. Just because he didn’t like it though didn’t mean he didn’t understand. This was a woman who’s father had been recently murdered, and he was probably her only other genuine human connection since then. It made sense that she wanted to hold onto it.

( _And he would be a liar if he said he didn’t want to hold onto it too. She made him feel like… him_ ).

So he knew he shouldn’t, but he kept saying yes anyway every time she turned up. He knew eventually it would blow up. He knew eventually Krennic would catch them. But they spoke in those hidden corners, across bars and in the dark of his suite, and a part of him was desperate to cling to them anyway. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he once asked, the two of them sat on his couch. There was a cushion and a respectful amount of distance between them, though their legs dangled off the edge and curled around each other on the floor. The dark and her ankle pressed against his seemed to make it safe to ask and she shook her head initially before apparently changing her mind. 

“We knew _…_  something was going to happen,” she said, staring hard at her hands. “Krennic called everyone out to meet. All the engineers, all of construction, even me. At first it just looked like it was going to be a congratulations, because we’d all finally done it, the Death Star was complete. But then he pulled out the blaster.” 

He saw the layers striping away as she recounted the story. “There wasn’t a lot of fuss,” she said. “He thanked Papa for all his hard work and then shot him straight in the chest.” 

He didn’t know how to offer comfort – whether she even wanted any at all – so he settled for just pressing his leg harder against hers. “I’m sorry.” 

“Yeah,” her voice was a little choked, acknowledging his words with a nod. 

Maybe it was contributing to why he kept agreeing to see her. The story of her father’s murder was personal, and she had trusted him with it. He was starting to want to trust her in return, which was probably the most dangerous thing he could ever do. Up until now, he’d learned to keep things to himself, keep it inside, and no one can ever use it against you. It would be bad form for a spy to offer up clear ammunition about himself, but this woman was apparently doing her damned hardest to make him terrible at his job. 

“This ship makes me itchy,” she said on another occasion, toes tapping on the floor of his living room. “I can’t get off it, I’m stuck going wherever Krennic wants me – we need to get out of here.”

“Do I really need to be the voice of reason, here?” K-2SO snapped out. “If he sees the two of you together again, you’re both dead.” 

“Not if I got to him first,” Jyn muttered. But she leapt out of her chair, crossing the room to grab his arm. “Come on,” she insisted.

“What are you doing?”

“I got an idea – just come with me.”

“Jyn Erso, your ideas tend to be a bit reckless,” K-2SO was happy to point out.

“Have I mentioned how much I love your droid?”

Cassian just huffed, before slowly letting himself get pulled from his chair.

K-2 didn’t even protest at this point, just threw up his metal hands and said, “Stay on the comms.”

Cassian didn’t know what Jyn’s plan was, and she wouldn’t tell him. He shrewdly suspected it was because she knew he wouldn’t like it. They moved through the dark of the ship’s night cycle, a time when most of the corridors were empty as most headed to bed, alongside the others doing quite the opposite. With parties and events scheduled every night, he almost thought that was where Jyn was taking him once more until she suddenly hung a left and started down a large staircase.

He faltered.

“Where are we going?”

She turned back to him on the stairs. “Honestly? Third class.”

“ _Why?_ ”

“I heard that they throw the best parties,” she shrugged.

But Cassian shook his head. “We can’t – Jyn, an Imperial worker can’t be seen down there – I’d stick out–” 

“So don’t be Joreth Sward,” she answered. “Be Cassian Andor.” 

The idea was kriffing  _insane_. 

“I don’t know who that is.”

Slowly, she stepped back up the stairs. Her gait was careful as she approached, giving him time to tell her to back off, but he didn’t at all, even once she was standing right in front of him. He stared, transfixed, as she raised her hands and gripped the edges of his unbuttoned jacket. His heart jack-kniffed up to his throat, but all she did after a pause was slowly push it down off his shoulders until it flopped onto the floor, leaving him in his plain shirt and trousers. Not so obviously Imperial, now.

She gave a small smile.

“It’s you. Be you,” she said.

And she held out a hand.

* * *

 

He was still holding it when they found the party.

It had to be the most stupid, reckless thing he’d ever done, but  _by the stars_  did he want it. Down here in the depths of the ship was almost an entire other world, shoved away and forgotten about, but still a bright spark amongst the billions of others in the galaxy. K-2 had been yelling at him ever since he’d realised what the plan was, to the point where Cassian had eventually gone and shut off the comm in his ear entirely. Down here, the furnishings were basic and the lighting shady at best, but there was a large common room for everyone to meet, and they could hear the music from halfway down the hall. Kids that should have been in bed screamed and ran as they played, swerving through the legs of the partying crowd that they found when they finally walked inside.

There was no professional band here, only two mandoviol players, someone banging on an overturned pot and a Nee’et who was playing an instrument that apparently required six limbs to play. Long tables lined one half of the room, clearly supposed to be used for dining, not that it deterred the dancers. Members of the crowd had climbed on top, jumping from table to table and helping each other swing over and around. Others chatted loudly over the music and several pints of what looked like every alcohol under the sun and the entire room should have been overwhelming. But he glanced over to Jyn and saw that her eyes were shining. 

He knew that they were 100% not supposed to be here, and yet somehow simultaneously in the exact right place to be. 

That was when he noticed the group of young adults dancing not too far away in a style that he knew was very specific to the planet Fest. He hadn’t spoken Festian in years.

“Wait, what did you say you did again?” Cassian found himself in conversation not too long later. His Festian was rusty from lack of use, but quickly got back into it as he spoke to some of the passengers.

“I’m a pilot,” Shara Bey answered happily, throwing back Festian wine while nestled underneath her husband’s shoulder. “Commercial, mostly.”

“That’s right – what the hell are you doing on  _Titanic_ , then?” he said.

“Well, you may not realise this,” Shara joked. “but we’re not exactly rich enough to own our own private shuttle.”

“And we couldn’t stay in Fest anymore,” Kes Dameron added in a shrug.

“Did the riots really get that bad?”

As cheerful as the conversation had been up until that point, the husband and wife exchanged grim looks for a second. “The riots were only the beginning. Honestly, you’re lucky that you got out when you did, because it wasn’t pretty from there.”

“The Imps occupied the entire planet,” Kes added. “The army fought back, but civvies were getting caught up in it, basically the entire planet became a war zone. We’re pretty much all refugees here,” He gestured with the arm around Shara to the others in the group that Cassian had spotted dancing earlier in the crowd. None of them could be older than him, yet all of their lives had already been displaced by this damn war. “Hopefully we can find a better life at the end of this ride.”

Cassian hadn’t felt such a strong connection to Fest like this basically ever since he first left it as a child. His stomach churned at the thought of the country he left behind, the family he used to have before they were all taken away. Was this really who he was? A child forced to abandon the only home he’d ever known, possibly to never set foot there ever again? 

“But hey! We can’t let this get depressing,  _lord_ ,” Shara laughed then over her drink. “We never even asked you what you do, Cassian?”

 _Cassian_. That’s who he was down here, that was what he’d said his name was against all of his better judgement. But he decided that he liked hearing it again. He liked hearing it from strangers and he liked hearing it even more when Jyn said it, so he stuck to the name that his mama gave him. He wasn’t quite sure what to say, because he didn’t exactly have a cover for this person. What was he supposed to tell, the truth?

 _Actually_.

“I’m an Intelligence Officer with the Rebel Alliance.”

Kes and Shara’s eyes both went wide.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. And we could use pilots like you, Shara Bey.”

She laughed. “Naw, I get it now. You charm us with your 'rusty’ Festian and suddenly, you have more officers for your army! Don’t worry, we still love you. We’ve actually been thinking for a while that we want to enlist.”

“I don’t really have much to offer,” Kes pointed out. “I work in an office.”

“But I could fly,” Shara said. “And I’m sure they would train you, right?”

“We would. And we would train you well. But honestly, I’m not actually here to recruit tonight.”

“Then why are you?”

That was a rather good question.  _Why the hell was he here?_

“I suppose I’m here because of my–” he began, but suddenly cut himself off since he realised that he didn’t actually know how to answer that one. He let his eyes move across the room, searching for Jyn and finding her contently watching the dancing and listening to the music. Apparently, he knew nothing anymore. What he was doing here, what the hell Jyn was to him, because she certainly wasn’t just a mark anymore, nor a target. She wasn’t anything personal – not a friend, companion or lover – maybe a…

“–partner?” he offered.

Kes and Shara exchanged knowing looks. “Don’t worry. There’s always one who’s dragging the other to all the parties.”

“Yeah, and that’s you in this relationship,” Kes said, affectionately kissing his wife’s hairline.

He was pretty sure they’d interpreted the word entirely different, but whatever, he went with it. “I don’t usually… I didn’t expect to find so many people from Fest here. I guess I’ve gotten a little out of touch with the culture.”

“I feel you,” Kes answered him. “We’ve been living based out of Coruscant for the last five years. You acclimatise to where you’re living, but you don’t forget where you come from and the guilt eats at you.”

Cassian didn’t feel like he had the luxury of blaming it simply on living somewhere else, however. He’d lost touch with his entire sense of self. He disassociated from Cassian Andor whenever he was forced to take on his multitude of roles for the rebellion. He’d had to leave that man far behind, lest he also get caught up in the things he’d done, but he was Cassian Andor now and he still felt all that guilt piling on him. He couldn’t escape it no matter who he became… he glanced back up at Kes and Shara.

“I think I want to find that part of me again.”

It seemed that they understood as they continued to chat, thankfully moving onto lighter topics and he found himself enjoying Kes’ dry humour, Shara’s belly laugh, and how the other’s from Fest all eventually made their ways over to meet him as well. By the time Jyn was catching up with him, he was intently discussing the best way to cook a dish that his father had made for him as a child and barely noticed her hand brushing casually against his shoulder.

“ _Jyn! You won’t believe_ –” He stopped hastily when he realised that he was still speaking Festian and noticed the bemused look on her face. “Sorry,” he said. “turns out we’re all from the same planet, I had no idea.”

“Fest, right?”

“You the partner?” Shara cut in then, practically throwing herself across several conversations to meet her. “I’m Shara, it’s so good to meet you!”

Jyn seemed a little overwhelmed, but shook her hand regardless. Cassian tried to convey without words that he didn’t mean anything by the term  _partner_ , but Jyn just kept smirking at him in response, which led to him eventually giving up. He wanted to reach out to her, wind an arm around her waist or hold her hand again, but didn’t quite dare yet. So far she had seemed ok with touch, but with K-2 as his only companion for several years, he knew that if he touched her he wouldn’t want to stop, and he wasn’t about to force that on her without explicit consent. Instead, he just watched her helplessly as she chatted to Shara, accepted the drink she was offering, smiled more than he’d ever seen from her up until this point.

( _He was getting dangerously close to this woman and he knew it_ ).

“… dance?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, pardon?” he realised that someone was speaking to him.

“You want to dance?” Shara asked him with a grin. “Make sure you haven’t forgotten how!”

“I’m fairly certain I literally have forgotten everything–”

“Then I’ll re-teach you, come on!” Shara had no problems dragging him out onto the dance floor.

Jyn watched in amusement as Shara basically took on the lead, which was ideal since Cassian could barely remember the basic stance. This style of dance had been imbedded into the brains of their entire culture – he was pretty sure he was dancing from the second he could walk – but he’d lost so much of himself he almost didn’t want it back (he didn’t deserve it, surely).

“Loosen up,” Shara shook his hands from where they were held in his between them. “I can tell you remember…”

He sighed, swinging out a hand in indication that he wanted Shara to turn. She did happily and once she was facing him once more he replied, “I’m still trying to figure things out, I guess.”

“You take your time,” she said, knowingly. “but hey. At least you have someone to figure things out with.” She nodded across the crowd to where Jyn hovered on the edge, casually chatting to some of the other Festian passengers and subtly watching them over their shoulders.

“I think you might have the wrong idea,” Cassian stepped to the side, leading Shara across the floor. “We haven’t known each other long.”

“Who needs to these days?” Shara replied, accepting the hand he offered so that this time she turned with both arms above her. Once she was facing him once more, she added, “You should ask her to dance.”

But this was different than a ballroom full of Imperial officers. There it was part of the mission, the easiest way to speak to her, but here… here in this room, it would be solely because they wanted to and he wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with those kinds of thoughts yet. Shara purposefully span out of his grip, tugging on his hands towards Jyn with a smile and he tugged back, hastily exclaiming,

“No, no, wait–”  

“ _Come onnnn_ ,” Shara shoved a hand on her hip. “we’re really doing this?”

“I told you, I’m not – we’re not –”

“Look, I just met you, so I’ll take your word and believe you,” Shara said. “but even if you’re not… you clearly want to.”

He stayed silent.

Shara smirked. “How’s this for a compromise then: if you dance with her… I will join your rebellion.”

Cassian stared. “You’re bluffing.”

“Do I look like someone who’s bluffing?”

“I’m good at this game, Shara, don’t test me.”

“I’m not. I’ve been thinking about it anyway, so consider this the sure fire way to convince me. Go dance with the girl, maybe kiss her at some point if she’s feeling it too, and I swear I’ll join… which probably means my husband will join as well, because he goes where I go.”

This was nuts… but she looked sure as hell. And maybe yeah, he wanted to dance with her and with her staring pointedly at him, Cassian finally cracked and stomped past a satisfied Shara to Jyn’s side. She clearly didn’t expect him to offer a hand and say,

“Dance with me?”

But she still accepted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "So you wanna go to a real party?" EEEYYYYYYYYY 
> 
> Yes, i included Kes and Shara and they are now from Fest like Cassian, I have no regrets. Honestly, thank you to the people who are still telling me that this fic is worth continuing, it's really what makes me keep going. i'm having so much fun with it, and we haven't even reached the sinking yet!! 
> 
> pls let me know what you think, I LOVE YALL SO MUCH   
> xoxo


	4. The bow

_“You reported me?_ ” Cassian said, barely containing the outrage.

“You broke communication, broke cover, and failed to explain yourself why,” K-2SO pointed out simply. “Of course I reported you. Why are you surprised?”

Cassian just walked away in agitation, running his hands roughly through his hair. Failing to remain in contact was one thing, but breaking cover… K-2 was right, he never should have done it. It wasn’t just reckless, it was downright suicidal. There was absolutely no guarantee that someone who had heard his real identity in that third class common room wouldn’t eventually end up somewhere that Krennic could get a hold of the information. He would be forcibly ejected into the Abyss and Jyn murdered right along with him in a heartbeat. 

He remembered taking her hand and dragging her out onto the dance floor. He shouldn’t remember it fondly, he should think of it as a terrible mistake, but he could still feel her hands clasped in his and it was probably the happiest he’d felt in a long time. She hadn’t exactly known what she was doing, but she had followed his lead as best she could and thrown her head back laughing anyway. They’d eventually given up on trying to follow the conventions. The music had been loud, energetic, a thumping rhythm that hit deep in the chest and she had wrapped herself around him, fingers gripping his shirt collar. At some point someone had even pulled them up onto one of the tables and they’d been roped into a group dance, clasping each other’s hands and spinning, her face the only thing clear in an otherwise blurry room… 

 _Karking hell_. A stupid,  _stupid_ idea. 

“I’m not  _surprised_ ,” Cassian span back around then to face K-2. “but Draven’s going to question me now and if I give truthful answers, he’s going to pull me off the assignment. I can’t let that happen.”

“Why not?” K-2 moved his arms in what was his version of a shrug. “It seems that we have done what we came here to do. Establish contact with the mark, deem her reliable or not.”

“You’re forgetting get the plans.”

“We have not yet been shown conclusive evidence that these plans exist,” K-2 said. “Nor do we even have confirmation of this Death Star ever being built.”

“The threat of entire planet’s being destroyed isn’t enough for you?”

“No, the word of a woman who has been under Imperial control the last fifteen years is not enough for me.”

“ _Kay_ –” Cassian snapped in frustration. 

But there was no point in arguing with him. K-2SO was nothing if not stubborn and logical. Everything he said made sense and in any other situation, Cassian would be agreeing with him. At the end of the day, this assignment did not have enough to justify continuing and by all accounts, they should be sneaking down into holding to climb aboard one of the private shuttles he knew was being stored down there to make their escape. But…

“I’ve been doing some calculating,” K-2 mentioned, then. Carefully, in a voice that Cassian knew he only used when forced to deliver news that wouldn’t be well received. It immediately made his hackles rise. “and trying to come up with reasons for your recent out-of-character behaviour. I decided to dismiss oxygen deprivation and poisoning, so that only left me with one likely explanation… you have a sexual attraction to the mark.”

Of all the things K-2 had said to him over the years, that had to be the most bizarre.

“Kay, did you just say the word ‘ _sexual_ ’?”

“You are avoiding my point.”

But what the hell was he supposed to say? It wasn’t just a sexual attraction, it was something else more, something entirely and utterly unexplainable. She was someone who actually understood him, someone whose life was as unstable and lost as his was. She heard him, figured out what was going on in his head without him having to explain. She had managed to find the real Cassian somewhere inside him and instead of hating him for the things he’d done, she instead looked at him and was able to smile. Sure, she was an angry, grieving mess, but Cassian looked back at her and felt his chest burn. He wouldn’t leave this ship without her.

He couldn’t.

“Exactly how mad do you think Draven is going to be?” Cassian just huffed, running a hand over his face.

* * *

 

Turns out, it was the exact level of mad that Cassian was expecting.

“ _WHAT THE HELL were you thinking, breaking cover?!_ ” Draven practically spat through the hologram. “ _This is fucking basic protocol, what are you, green? You might blow the entire operation!_ ”

“I made a calculated risk, sir,” Cassian lied through his teeth. “We saw the third class as an opportunity for recruitment and I met some people who were willing to join. You’ve always said that there is never one single objective on a mission–”

“ _There is on one as high-stakes as this_ ,” Draven thundered. His face would have been purple with rage, if the hologram allowed any colour other than blue to come through. “ _Your objective was to check the authenticity of this Erso’s claims and until such a thing was known, you were to treat it as if they were true. We cannot fuck around with a planet killer!_ ” Cassian opened his mouth to counter, but it would have been useless. Draven had every right to be livid considering everything he said was true.

Draven carried on his tirade, K-2 clearly trying to not look like he was 3 seconds away from saying ‘I told you so’ as he hovered in the background. “ _As it is, we have no idea whether your little jaunt down to the third class compromised you or not, so I’m pulling you from the mission_.”

“Wait, Sir–”

“– _DO NOT ARGUE_ ,” Draven yelled. “ _I am pulling you from this mission effective immediately! As soon as this call is over, you will execute the extraction plan and return at once to Home One. I’ll decide what the hell to do with you once you’re here. K-2SO will remain on Titanic and carry out the mission’s objective_.”

“Sir,” Cassian’s hands shook, but he clenched them into fists to disguise it. “The objective still includes the extraction of the mark. She has to be extracted, Krennic will kill her if it’s found out she’s no longer loyal–”

“ _It is no longer your concern, Captain Andor_ ,” Draven snapped. “ _Leave it to K-2SO, I’m sure you trust him to carry out the mission. I have nothing more to say to you, transmission over_.”

And the hologram cut out.

“Well,” K-2 said into the ringing silence. “all things considered, I think that went well.”

“I can’t leave,” Cassian said at once.

“You will be sanctioned or worse if you don’t.”

“I don’t care,” Cassian rose to his feet, checking that the blaster that never left his side was still hidden away inside his jacket. “Look, I have to go find Jyn, I need to–”

“You need to get down to holding!”

“KAY,” Cassian whirled back as the droid clamped a hand down onto his shoulder. K-2 visibly flinched away as Cassian deflected, the resulting  _clang_ of Cassian’s fist hitting the droid’s metal challis ringing throughout the suite. He hadn’t meant to be so forceful, though it at least seemed to have done the job. K-2 was clearly shocked, backing away from him. 

For a moment they stayed silent. 

“Look – I’m sorry,” Cassian said, softer now. “but who do you trust more: me, or Draven?”

“That is an unfair question. Of course I trust you more. But–”

“–then you have to let me do this,” Cassian insisted. “I only need a couple more days. We’ll get evidence that the plans exist and you don’t ever have to tell Draven that I’m still here. We’ll say I ran into technical issues on the journey back to base and that I’m still on route. By the time we’ve stolen the plans and actually arrive back, it will be too late to do anything to me and we’ll have much bigger problems to handle.”

“I do not like this plan, Cassian.”

“I figured, but  _please_ ,” he said, stepping forward.

K-2 gave a mechanical sigh. “I trust you, and I will do it... but for the record, I am not happy about it. I will never understand organics and their need for sexual fulfilment.”

* * *

 

_Beep, beep, beep. Please update your system!_

For fuck’s sake, Officer Rohn Macehold was going to die of kriffing boredom on this ship.

“Anything good?” he asked as his co-pilot finally ended his conversation with the navigator, absently dismissing the notification from his control panel. “PLEASE, tell me that there’s something good? A nebula to swerve around? Meteor dust to avoid?”

“Nothing, mate,” Officer Yull’in Maan sighed, collapsing back next to him in his chair. “Captain won’t even let us go off auto until the next hyper-link!”

“That’s in  _six hours_.”

“It was nice working with ya,” Yull’in sighed.

_Beep, beep, beep. Please update your system!_

“I didn’t go to friggin’ flight school,” Rohn huffed. “To sit on my arse all day playing Dejarik with the engineers.”

“Oh, who’s winning?”

“Bloody Dan, I’m pretty sure he’s cheating though.”

“Look, this is what we got for taking on a commercial job,” Yull’in snorted. “Just be thankful we’re not getting shot out of hyperspace, ok?”

“Would be more interesting than this.”

_Beep, beep, beep. Please update your system!_

“Ok, how the ever-loving fuck do you turn off notifications,” Rohn finally lost it, furiously swiping at the control screen. “because this is driving me NUTS–”

“Don’t waste your time man, every time I try the system won’t let me disable it,” Yull’in practically laughed. “We’re living in hell.”

“Honestly, who the fuck ever updates their system anyway? We haven’t crashed yet, I think we’ll be fine.”

“Starting to wish you’d taken that fighter pilot opportunity now, huh?” 

But Rohn ultimately shook his head, staring at their control screen without really seeing it. Quite honestly, he’d take the cheating engineers over being forced to shoot at rebels who were really only trying to make the galaxy a better place. He wasn’t strong enough for that. There were plenty others who were far more qualified than him to take on that role.

At least here he couldn’t do any damage.

_Beep, beep, beep. Please update your system!_

* * *

 

The promenade was probably only one of the few places on the ship where you were likely to encounter someone from literally any walk of life. One of the very few all-access areas, the promenade featured a long street right through the centre of B deck, the domed ceiling giving off the illusion of sunlight beaming down as popular shops, restaurants and entertainment lined the road. Of course, it opened out eventually onto the observation deck, which was mostly used as a wide open area to hang out or a place to host events when the shields were closed.

That’s where he eventually found Jyn, dutifully following Krennic as they casually perused the promenade’s shops. Maybe a little paranoid, Cassian followed at a distance, unwilling to let Krennic see him. If Kes or Shara or any of his other fellow Festian’s saw him up here dressed like this, and Krennic saw…

Finally, he saw his opportunity when Krennic and several of his party stopped to talk to someone who was clearly rather important in the ship’s running. Jyn hung on the edges of the group and he stole forward silently to tug on her sleeve to get her attention. She started, but thankfully didn’t ask questions or hesitate at all, simply let him pull her several feet away into the nearest building. 

Surrounded by what seemed to be lots of elaborate exercise equipment and a receptionist who clearly doubted that they were there to work out, Jyn glanced around at him anxiously. 

“What is it?” she asked. “Why are you–?”

“Jyn, listen–” He tried to keep his voice low, urgent and yet controlled. “I got myself pulled off his assignment for breaking cover. I’m talking  _major_ trouble, my supervisor is probably going to murder me when I finally make it back to the rebellion.”

“But that’s insane – Krennic still has no idea who you are–”

“It doesn’t matter,” he cut in. “I shouldn’t have gone to that party with you, I shouldn’t have told anyone who I was, I knew it was a bad idea, but you–”

“I didn’t make you,” Jyn said.

“ _I’m not_ –” He grit his teeth. He didn’t have time for this. “Look. I’m supposed to be on a stolen shuttle literally as we speak, but I can’t leave this mission–”  _without you_. “–with – without knowing that the objective is completed. You need to get confirmation of the plans’ existence.”

“You said you believed me.”

“I do – hell, you’re not making this easy–”

“We had a plan,” Jyn said, a hint of anger now on the edges of her tone. “I told you it’s not safe to access the plans until we’re ready to take them. We’re going to have to force the safe to get it open, and there’s no getting them back in afterwards. Krennic will know–”

“If you want the Alliance Council to believe you then you will figure out a way.”

“What the hell?” she scowled. “I thought you actually cared about more than just the mission, that I wasn’t just another mark – lord, I’m fucking stupid. This isn’t you talking, this is your boss–”

“ _You don’t know who the hell I am_ ,” Cassian hissed at her. He hastily glanced through the window, though thankfully Krennic’s party still hadn’t seemed to notice that she was missing. How the hell dare she say he didn’t care? He cared way too fucking much, and that was the entire goddamn problem. “Fine. Look, I can’t see you again then. It’s too dangerous, word will eventually get around that an Alliance spy is also on board the  _Titanic_ and Krennic is smart. He will eventually catch on and figure out it has to be me.”

He couldn’t let her convince him otherwise. He turned to leave, except of course she said, “Wait!” and grabbed his wrist. 

“I’m serious, let go,” he said without looking.

After a beat or two she did. He walked away, hating himself more with every step.

* * *

 

Jyn Erso was hanging by a thread.

She had been ever since her father had been shot down right in front of her. She wasn’t sure what was going to be the vibroblade that eventually severed that last inch, but she was certain more than ever that she was getting closer to it. Little by little, something would dig in until finally it wouldn’t take much more to make it snap. She’d thought that perhaps losing the only person who had ever bothered to help her would do it, but then she had chided herself for being so damn dramatic.

No matter how many times she closed her eyes, she couldn’t get the image of her father’s dead face out of her head. He had stood right next to her, on the cusp of Galactic domination as the construction of the Death Star was compared one last time to his original designs. Everything had matched perfectly. Nothing at fault was to be found and they were nearly,  _nearly there_ , when Krennic had turned around and said,

“Thank you for your services, Galen. I couldn’t have made it this far without you.” 

Before putting a blaster wound through his chest.

Jyn visibly flinched, turning over in bed to try and hide the memory. Her father, who had been nothing but loving and kind, who had been forced to create a monster, was just murdered at the end of it all. She hadn’t cried, or at least she didn’t think she had – the memory thankfully blurred at that point – but every other part of her had been screaming. Krennic had then handed off the blaster to another officer with distaste before looking at her warmly and saying,

“Come on then, Jyn, dear. We have a lot of work to do.”

In other words, say anything and you end up on the floor like him.

She should have just let Krennic kill her. But somehow, maybe idiotically, Jyn had thought that she could still carry on her father’s legacy, succeed where he died and somehow get the damn plans out herself. It had taken five days to steal all the equipment that she had needed in order to send the hologram out undetected, encrypting it at least five times for good measure. At least her father hadn’t taught her nothing. She would make him proud.

She had to.

She let out a frustrated noise, opening her eyes. She wasn’t sleeping. Cassian had walked away from her and it was her own damn fault. The last two days he had avoided her completely. The only reason she knew he was still on board was because she could tell he had gone back to tailing her, always on the edge of her vision, but never approaching. She didn’t know what he was waiting around for. He had to get back or risk getting into more trouble and clearly he was doubting the plans even existed anymore...

She stole out of bed quietly, slipping easily into the shadows behind the one lone guard that Krennic always had posted, even in the dead of the night. She had to get out somewhere, and if she couldn’t leave the bloody ship, then she wanted to be the one place that had actually felt welcoming.

The entire E deck that was mostly made up of third class passengers was basically empty this time of night, but Jyn knew that she would be around somewhere. Shara Bey had told her that she often got up especially at certain times to watch the sights whenever they changed hyper-lanes. If she remembered the schedule correctly, the next was due soon and if Jyn hurried she might catch Shara before she headed on up to the observation deck.

She found her coming up the stairs just as Jyn was heading down.

“Going to see the Villina?” Shara called cheerfully when she noticed her. “Good idea, although you’re going the wrong way.”

“I was hoping to catch you, actually.”

“Aw, I’m touched,” Shara grinned as she linked their elbows together. 

They started the climb back up the stairs through the labyrinth of corridors. For a while they were both quiet, but it seemed that Shara understood the need to let Jyn talk when she was ready, although how she didn’t know. 

“Couldn’t sleep, huh?” Shara eventually asked. 

“No.”

“Wanna talk about it?” she gently prompted. 

She still wasn’t quite sure. Jyn had been so used to always having at least her father around to vent to. He was her one sole person to depend on, to be able to talk about anything with, only now he was gone and she had no one. That was the thing, people always left. Not that she’d had many people to get close to throughout her life, but if there was someone, they were eventually taken away. Her mama was gone. The kids of other high-ranking generals that she played with whenever they visted Eadu would always leave again. And eventually her papa too. The smart thing to do was to stay silent and not risk blowing Cassian’s cover any more than it already was…

But she didn’t want to be smart right now.

“I can’t… there’s a lot I can’t say,” she admitted, slowly. “but I want… Cassian and I had a fight.”

Shara made a small sound of sympathy. “Happens to the best of us.”

“It’s serious. We’re in a tight spot and our lives are in a lot of danger if we don’t tread carefully… sorry I’m being so vague–”

“It’s fine,” Shara said at once.

Jyn nodded in thanks. “Thing is, I encouraged him to do something that was reckless and stupid and now he’s mad about it, pulling away,” She had been so angry at him at that time, his remarks stinging. His words had felt like accusations and she had bitten back, but after stewing in her own guilt, she realised that she probably did deserve part of the blame. He had warned her it was a bad idea to go down to third class, to fuck all covers and be whoever the damn hell he wanted and she’d encouraged him anyway. Maybe it was what he had wanted to do, maybe it was what was good for him, but this wasn’t an ideal world. This was a war, they didn't have the luxury of doing what they wanted, when they wanted, and she had just pushed away the only person in the galaxy who was willing to help her escape Krennic. 

“I want to apologise,” she said. “but for our safety, we need to stay away from each other.”

Shara squeezed her elbow. “Shit, girl. I’m sorry I can’t really help you out. I’d say just apologise, but if that’s going to risk your safety…”

“It’s probably better this way,” Jyn added, agreeing. The longer he stayed away, the less suspicious Krennic would become and the more likely she’d have a chance to do…  _something_. Literally anything other than dutifully go to Scarif. But  _goddamn it_ , she didn’t want to. She wanted to talk to him, dance with him, feel his hands on her back again and his breath in her hair. 

There was a reason she kept seeking him out. Turns out she wanted a lot of things that she didn’t know she could ever want. 

“I guess I could just use a friend,” Jyn admitted. “I haven’t really had many of those before.”

“Say no more,” Shara said at once. “Come on, we’ve got a nebula to witness!”

They continued to climb all the way to the observation deck at the bow, catching it just as the shields were opening. For a moment, Jyn was transfixed by the gradual reveal of stars, until her gaze drifted down… and she realised that Shara and her weren’t the only ones up at this time after all. Someone stood right at the front of the bow, leaning against the rails and Jyn stopped dead in her tracks when she realised.

Shara seemed to get it straight away.

“There’s no one around,” she said, quietly.

“But I can’t–” Jyn said. “He doesn’t want me to–”

“Jyn, just go and say what you need to say. I’ll keep an eye out.”

She apparently owed Shara a lot. She turned to her friend and gripped her elbow tightly. 

“Thank you.”

* * *

 

The observation deck was basically empty at this hour. Not many people were willing to stay up, despite the view being the infamous Villina Nebula. The hazy purple cloud spread across the sea of space in front of him, Cassian able to at least get the best view right at the front leaning on the railing. With the glass viewport and nothing in front of him, he could almost imagine that he was actually out there among the stars, feel them skim by his face, run his hands through the nebula cloud. There was no war out here, no Empire, no rebellion, just him and the endless space…

“Hey.”

He gave a start, spine tensing immediately. He didn’t turn, but allowed himself to dare hope even as he closed his eyes at the same time.

“You’re so stupid, Jyn.”

“So are you,” she said. “I guess we’re both being stupid together now.”

“I said we needed to stay away from each other.”

“Yeah, well, I caved. Are you even surprised?”

He turned finally, finding her standing still a few feet away, fingers pulling at the edges of her jacket.  She held back, even as she came to him. If she felt anything like him, then she would be dying to move, to touch, to hold, but still couldn’t quite cross that line until absolutely certain that the other was ok with it. He supposed that’s why he was such a gonner.

“Honestly, I was about two minutes from caving myself.”

“Well, shit. Now I’m just the sad one who caved first.”

He broke into a small laugh. “I’m sorry,” he needed to say. “I was anxious and I snapped at you. All of the decisions I’ve made since boarding this ship I wanted to do, none of this is your fault.”

“No, I’m sorry as well,” Jyn was quick to say. “I knew it was a bad idea, you told me it was, but I encouraged you anyway.”

“Stop that, it’s ok–”

“Only if you stop it!”

He couldn’t help but smile again. He noticed someone a long way off across the deck, someone he suspected was Shara Bey hovering right at the edge as if keeping an eye out. They exchanged looks of acknowledgement but nothing more. He glanced back at Jyn. 

“I don’t really have a plan anymore,” he admitted. “I’m supposed to go back to base immediately, but I can’t leave without you.” 

A flash of emotion hit her face, but it was gone so quickly he couldn’t be sure what he’d seen there. 

“We’ll figure something out,” she said in reply. 

There were so many other things he knew they should be doing. They should re-plan, back off, go figure out what the hell they were going to do, but he ignored it all in favour of offering out a hand to her.

“Come here?”

She carefully moved forward, until her hand was clutched in his. Whispering for her to close her eyes, she did so after only a moment of trepidation and he carefully pulled her in front of him so that she could see the view from the very tip of the bow. He lifted her arms into the air, leaving them drifting through the stars and said,

“Open your eyes.”

Her sharp intake of breath was barely audible, but being right behind her meant he heard everything. She stared at the colourful nebula before them, his hands skimming her sides as they drifted down her arms, down to her hips. It was so quiet on the observation deck that they could be the only two people in the entire universe, and Cassian was quite fine with that idea.

“It’s like I’m floating,” Jyn said. “Part of the stars.”

“We finally got the best view.” 

"It's beautiful." 

He pressed his nose into her hair, hands moving again now, up her waist and down her arms until he could tangle and untangle his fingers with hers as they stretched out. He could feel her pulse thudding in her neck. He didn’t know what was happening, or what she wanted to happen, but he felt her grip his fingers and bring them down, wrapping his arms around her, and he got an idea. She glanced up at him over her shoulder and his entire universe narrowed down.

“I want…” she whispered.

“Yeah, me too,” and he leaned forward the meagre space between them to kiss her underneath the billions of stars and nebulae. She pressed in deep, his arms winding tighter around her waist. It seemed that there could be no in between for them. No easing into it, no taking it slow, it was all or nothing and he gave as good as he got, his entire body feeling like it had gone up in flames. It was all faintly terrifying. He half expected to hear K-2’s disapproving voice in his ear any second and all of his training seemed to have left him completely. He had no idea what was happening in his surroundings, no idea what the dangers were. All he knew was her in front of him as she reached up a hand, fingers raking through his hair so that she could tether him to her mouth ( _not that he ever wanted to leave it_ ).

 _This is a bad idea_. It should have been ringing through his head like an emergency siren, but he couldn’t seem to stop even when he tried. He pulled back a moment, only she used it as an opportunity to turn around in his arms, back to the stars and chest pressed to his. Her kiss was bruising. He felt his fingers grip handfuls of her jacket at her sides, like if he let go she might drift off into the void of space. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t lose this anymore. He cared way too fucking much. 

He was beyond the point of pretending that he didn't. 

“Cassian,” she muttered against his lips. In between kisses, she said, “ _Cassian_ , let’s go.”

“I… yeah,” he kissed the corner of her mouth, her cheek, her hairline. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall......................why is kissing.............so hard.................to write?????????????????????? i literally just wanted to say "and then their lips touched over and over, pls imagine a wide swooshy camera shot where u can also see the stars too kk thnx" 
> 
> but i didn't in the end lol. i hope this chapter was ok!! also this means that the sinking is definitely gonna be happening soon so Brace Yourselves hahahahahaha 
> 
> MUCH LOVE  
> xoxo


	5. The collision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #ICEBERG AHEADDDDDD

****They didn’t exactly _run_ , but they certainly didn’t take their time either. Fingers interlaced with his, Jyn wasn’t even sure who was leading who as they made their way down the main B deck corridor. Every now and then she would steal a glance and he would feel her eyes on him, turning his head so that he could catch her smile. It took her several times to remember that it was ok to be caught.

He looked like he was about to say something… when he suddenly skidded to a halt.

“Is that–?” Cassian began, nearly pulling Jyn’s arm out of the socket as he hastily yanked her back behind the corner.

A bit slower this time, she carefully glanced around at the corridor beyond. Not a lot of people were awake at this time, and yet there was someone there moving down towards them. A rather large, rather Imperial, rather…  _familiar_  looking someone.

She swore in Huttese. All the best swear words were in Huttese, especially when you were a twelve-year-old with nothing much else to research.

“It’s Krennic’s bodyguard!” she hissed, pulling Cassian around by the hand and retreating back the way they’d come. “Damn it, he’s figured out I was missing quicker than usual. Just keep your head down, he might not realise it’s us from this far away.”

She wasn’t optimistic, but she wasn’t going to let her damn bodyguard keep her away from Cassian tonight. Fuck all the consequences, this night was  _hers_. They kept walking about as fast as they dared, but they only managed another couple feet when suddenly someone yelled,

“HEY!”

Jyn abandoned all pretences. Glancing over her shoulder, she shouted, “RUN!”

The chase was on. Jyn couldn’t remember much about this particular bodyguard except that he only went by the name LJ and that she was pretty sure he was the one who used to work for the Imperial Security Bureau. One thing she  _did_  know was that literally nothing less than bashing him over the head with a hydrospanner could stop him. Sure enough, he managed to stay hot on their heels even as she and Cassian practically leapt down staircases, tore through hallways and roved in and out of public areas to try and get rid of him. She wasn’t worried. This bodyguard might be tough, but they were fast and with Cassian still holding her hand, she knew they’d be fine. They just had to shake him. “This way, this way!” she called with a grin, dragging Cassian back to a set of double doors. They burst out into the very crowded casino, immediately plunging into the drunk, first class crowd. She hung onto Cassian’s arm and tugged him into to a stop as they hid behind some rather tall Cerean business owners who were busy watching a podrace on several large screens. Breathing hard, she cautiously glanced out and saw LJ still at the edge of the room, staring frustratingly into the crowd.

“We lost him!” she said, almost gleefully.

“Are you sure he’s just a bodyguard?” Cassian panted, free hand clutching at his chest. “He’s more like a Stormtrooper general.”

“Krennic’s never exactly been picky when it comes to background checks.”

“Lucky for us,” Cassian rolled his eyes, but then he was meeting hers once more and he had to be able to see the delight spreading across her face. She didn’t know about him, but she was still thinking about his arms around her up at the bow and nothing broke the connection, even as the Cerean's they hid behind all suddenly cheered from a win, hollering and whistling. No, she could look at him forever.

…except her eyes slid over Cassian’s shoulder for a split second and she saw him.

“ _Shit_ ,” she exclaimed.

They tore through the crowds, LJ having accidentally caught her eye across the room. Flashing lights almost blinded her, the bells and screaming deafening. They practically skidded out down a side passage, pelting down the corridor. Careening around another corner, Cassian dragged her to a sudden stop. Before she could ask why, he pointed out the door that had ‘STAFF ACCESS ONLY’ stamped across it.

“In here!”

“But we can’t–”

He pulled out a scramble key and was in in seconds.

She stood corrected. They thundered inside, the floor changing to a metal grating underneath their boots. She heard the door slide shut behind them with a satisfying  _snick_. She heard LJ thumping on it behind them, but they just continued to run, run,  _run_. They pelted through what seemed to be one of the control rooms for the ship. They heard the occasional blips of notifications or calls coming in, officers talking to colleagues in other parts of the ship, saw the harsh lines of the navigational systems displayed on the screens. Startled officers turned around in bewilderment as they leapt past.

“Don’t mind us!” Jyn yelled after them. “You’re doing great, keep up the good work!”

They finally came out the other end. Hacking through another door, they stumbled out into another passenger corridor. Breathing hard, Jyn eyed the scramble key in Cassian’s hand.

“That’s got to be high grade.”

“Sometimes the rebellion splashes out,” Cassian agreed.

Jyn mock tried to take it and he snatched it out of the way at the last second. Laughing, Jyn realised that they might have actually managed to successfully get away. Cassian’s suite wasn’t far and she still wasn’t entirely sure about him, but she was keen to see how much more breathless he could make her once they were inside. 

“C’mon,” she said.

“Wait, wait–”

He grabbed hold of her sleeve, gently pulling her back to his side. Jyn turned her smile on him, only it slowly slid off her face when she noticed the sudden seriousness in his expression. An arm reached out and wrapped around her waist. It was only as he was tugging her closer and seeing the look on his face when she realised.

 _I just want to kiss you_ , his eyes said.  _For no reason. Is that ok?_

He hesitated before touching her, so she closed the rest of the gap for him. She swung up onto her toes, pressing her lips against his and he sighed into her. Another kiss, longer, warmer, that shot straight down into her toes. She felt his hand slide up, cupping her neck, his thumb sliding against her jaw. She wasn’t even thinking about their safety. She wasn’t thinking at all. She could only feel him moving against her, stroking her tongue with his, fingers hovering over her pulse point. All that mattered was that she got as close to him as possible.

Eventually, however, she had to break away.

“Hold that thought,” she said, nose still pressed against his. “Let’s get out of here first.”

* * *

Thing is, she was confident right up until his bedroom.

She felt him slow against her until he finally wasn’t moving at all. She nipped at his bottom lip, urging him on, but he just pulled back entirely instead. She missed the heat of his mouth, although his face looked serious enough that she didn’t protest when she glanced up at him.

“What is it?” he asked.

“What?” she answered. There was nothing wrong… or rather, there should have been nothing wrong. They were alone. They were safe. They didn’t have K-2SO hovering in the next room (apparently off completing more ship surveillance) and Cassian’s room was dark and peaceful. If there was anyone she was going to trust doing this with, it was him, and yet… she still felt her heart pounding painfully in her throat.

“You’re anxious,” Cassian pointed out. 

“Well… yeah,” Jyn found that she couldn’t look him in the eye anymore. Instead, she spoke to his chest, arms still tight around him. “Who wouldn’t be? But I’m fine.”

“We don’t have to do this.”

“Can we just call it what it is, please?” she asked. “Cassian, I want to have sex with you. Yes, I’m nervous, but isn’t anyone? Aren’t you?”

Chagrined, Cassian hung his head.

“See?”

“I don’t know why. It’s you.”

“Exactly,” Jyn tugged on the hem of his shirt, slowly pulling it from his trousers. “ _It’s you_.”

Cassian sighed – or maybe it was a shiver, since she was now running her fingers over the skin under his shirt. “I’ve never…” He seemed to struggle for words. “I’ve never done this with someone that I actually care about before.”

Shit.

It made her pause because quite honestly, she was the same. Her sexual history wasn’t exactly huge to start with, and anyone that she had ever slept with had always had some kind of hidden (or not so hidden) agenda behind it. A hand job for the guy who would let her use his security clearance, a fuck in a back room for the officer who would spill about Krennic’s newest operating system updates, if it could get her something then she hadn’t hesitated to do it. Her hands stilled over his back and he immediately backtracked. 

“ _Kriff_  – I can take that back if you–” he said, hastily.

“No,” she quickly reassured. “I’m the same.”

He let out a long breath, resting his mouth against her hairline in a brief kiss. “I don’t know when exactly you became such a big deal to me, Jyn.”

“You became a big deal to me the moment you said you’d help me.”

“You did peel away the layers,” Cassian admitted. “Maybe that was it.”

“Are you glad?”

She ran her hands up his back now, finger tips pressing in against every bump, every vertebrae, every raised scar. He closed his eyes and murmured,

“Yes.”

Slowly, so as not to startle him, she rose up to press a kiss to his lips. Funny how she seemed to deal with the nervousness by comforting him instead. She kissed him until she felt the heat rising from his skin, his heart beating out of his chest. She trailed her hands around and out from under his shirt so that she could tug on the top buttons instead.

“Let me take it off?” she whispered.

“Ok.”

It wasn’t cold in his room, and yet his skin prickled as she eventually pushed off his shirt much like she had done to his jacket in a different place, in a different time. It seemed that the more she’d gotten to know him, the more layers he had been willing to shed until now, he had apparently trusted her with the last one. She didn’t know why she was surprised by the network of marks and scars scattered across his torso. She’d felt them on his back, knew that he was a spy, that he must have taken hits at some point. But his cover had been so good that she’d managed to just assume that his skin would be as clear as his fake record. He caught her staring and glanced away. She assured him with her touch. She ran her hands up his chest, fingers trailing every scar that they could find, caressing them, accepting them. Until he twitched suddenly when she pressed against what was obviously once a stab wound and she immediately snatched her hands back.

“I’m sorry–”

“No – no, it’s ok,” he let out a breath through his nose. “Just… no one’s ever touched me like that before.”

It took her a moment to figure out the implication. He wasn’t flinching because she was hurting her, he was flinching because it was overwhelming. He welcomed her touch, and she shivered at the thought of him doing the same to her. “As much as I like it,” Cassian muttered then, reaching out for her and catching her hips, pulling her closer. “I think I’d rather…”

The kiss was a little harder than the others. She wound her arms around his neck as his hands took the opportunity to roam this time. They pressed against her spine, mouth eventually travelling from her lips. He explored her jaw, nipping and kissing right up to the skin just under her ear and she let out a long breath she didn’t realise she’d been holding. She heard him huff a little in amusement as he ran his tongue along her skin. His hands moved down then, grasping the hem of her shirt.

“Ok?” he murmured.

“Ok.”

He pulled the shirt over her head. She started a little at the sudden exposure, and probably underneath his gaze as well since he was looking at her like… something. Something she’d never quite seen before. Something she honestly never thought she’d ever experience, but she was feeling the something too and so she didn’t hide. In fact, she reached back and took off her bra herself, feeling heat coil at the way his eyes glanced down and then immediately glanced away as if berating himself for being too damn obvious.

“You’re allowed to look, Cassian,” Jyn mentioned, lightly.

“I know.”

When he glanced back his gaze was softer, eyes trailing her curves. She didn’t have nearly as many scars as he did. A lifetime of living under Krennic’s control kept her safe, locked up inside the buildings at Eadu so that she didn’t even have grazes from climbing rocks or exploring the rain. A vastly different life.    

When he reached out to her shoulders to turn her around, her heart almost stopped as for those few seconds her mind immediately leapt to  _he hates me, I look hideous, he doesn’t even want to see –_ but it was only so that he could step in and wrap his arms back around her, leaning down and finding her neck once more with his lips. She closed her eyes, feeling her heart race like it had done at the bow of the  _Titanic_. His hands for some reason stayed studiously away from where she wanted, so she took it upon herself to take them and guide them unceremoniously onto her breasts. He choked a little and she laughed.

“You were taking too long.”

He took a moment to regain his composure, but certainly began to make up for the lost time. She tipped her head back onto his shoulder as he curved around the lines of her breasts, squeezed. Filling his hands with her. She gasped, though it soon seemed that there were other parts of her he wanted to explore as well. His hands didn’t linger long, instead slowly moved down her body. He dug his fingertips in, massaging her chest, then her stomach, smoothing over her hips before lingering near the clasp of her trousers.

“I want to make you come with my hand,” Cassian whispered. “Is that ok?”

Good lord.

“Yes.”

No one had ever done that before. No one other than herself had ever actually done that before and for a split second she panicked, sure that it wouldn’t work, that she wouldn’t be able to do it…but then he had opened her trousers and his hand had slid inside and she kind of stopped thinking entirely.  _Fuck_. Heat flared up her body from where he touched her, circling and stroking, reverently and determinedly at the same time. His other hand rested against her stomach and she held it, closing her eyes as his fingers worked her over. If it had been anyone else, she was sure it wouldn’t have worked. The reason it did anything at all was because turns out trust was a remarkably big turn on for her and she was honestly surprised when she felt the heat slowly building up and threatening to spill over. He kissed her shoulders, her collar, anything he could reach. She simply held on, riding him out, until finally, eventually…she was thrown over the edge entirely.

He held her until she could finally relax.

“I can barely stand.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“It’s a great thing,” she turned around, clasping her hands around his neck and jumping so that she could wrap her legs around his hips. He stumbled a little, but caught her under the ass and accepted her kiss anyway. Things kind of progressed a bit faster from there. He carried her to his bed and she noticed (amongst the other jumbled thoughts crossing her mind such as,  _yes, shit, son of a Hutt_ ) that they divested of clothes at an almost even rate. He took off his shirt, she lost hers. Now he stripped her trousers off and she took his. Was this what love was? Jyn didn’t know, all she did was that her body was on fire and that Cassian was letting her take control on top of him and she was feeling that  _something_  again that she was dangerously close to panicking about. She pulled back from his lips and stared down at him, her hair having come out of its bun a while ago and now hanging down around his face. He breathed hard as she rested her hands on his chest.

“You ok?” he asked.

“You only promised to get me away from this damn ship,” she said. “You never asked to end up here.”

“I have a beautiful, incredible woman literally on top of me,” Cassian pointed out. “Jyn, I’d take you anywhere.”

She managed a smile at least. “Take me to the stars, then?”

He reached up and cupped her head, bringing her back to his lips.

* * *

Rohn roused with a jolt.

 _Blimey_ , would he ever get a proper sleep cycle back after working this infernal job? He rubbed his eyes warily, taking several seconds to glance around and figure out what the hell had actually woken him. A clear and very persistent beeping was admitting from the navicom and it took only a split second for him to go from tired and confused, to alert and karking  _panicking_.

“Wait – wait – what the fuck?!” he muttered, swinging the screen in front of him. The device was practically screaming at him and his eyes widened at the information that was glaring back at him. He quickly hurtled himself across the control panel to hit the button that would open the visual shields and,  _welp_.

Maybe he would have been better off as a fighter pilot after all.

“ _Force above_ –” 

It took way too long for the call to get picked up. To be fair, it was right during the  _Titanic’s_  night cycle and the captain was more than likely asleep, but all that was going to change real damn soon anyway so he figured she wouldn’t complain. Captain Smyth snapped an exasperated, “ _What?_ ” in response.

And Rohn practically yelled,

“Captain! The  _Titanic_  is roughly two minutes away from colliding with an asteroid!”

* * *

The bridge, that had been deserted 30 seconds ago, now thundered with dozens of boots and panicked yells.

“How the hell could this happen?!” Captain Smyth was beside herself, staring at the navicom that was still insistently warning them that they were heading straight into the path of an un-charted and rather intimidating asteroid. “Our route is on auto, the navs calculate everything themselves, it’s damn near  _impossible_ –”

Their Chief Navigator, a young Mirialan, looked extremely frazzled. Her frizzy hair practically stood on end as she frantically typed what looked like endless streams of code directly into the navicom. “Captain, when was the last time the navigation systems were updated?!” she asked.

Smyth threw up her hands. “The hell if I know–”

“Well, I can give you a vague answer now,” she quickly threw back without even looking up. “Not in a LONG time. There are new black holes forming and stars being born all the time, hyper-lanes are always changing, this system HAS to stay updated or–”

“Or we fucking fly into an asteroid and  _disintegrate_ ,” Rohn exchanged equally horrified looks with Yull’in next to him.

_Please update your system!_

“I DON’T CARE,” Captain Smyth roared. “JUST GET US AROUND THAT THING.”

That was far easier said than done. With less than a minute predicted until impact, travelling through hyperspace just didn’t work like that. Rohn had heard to far too many grisly crash stories for him to not be frantically running through prayers in his head that second. The asteroid that had crossed their path was clearly newly formed, its position not yet plotted on whatever outdated system they currently had installed. According to the monitors, it was roughly five kilometres across in diameter and while small in size, hitting it at lightspeed would probably kill the ship and everyone on board almost instantaneously.

Navigating around it wasn’t as simple as just grabbing a joystick, either. Rohn glanced over at Yull’in once more, knowing that his co-pilot had come to the exact same conclusion as him. Hyperlanes were carefully mapped for a reason. If they changed their course even by an inch, they would more than likely crash into something else and Rohn wasn’t going to speak for the rest of the crew, but he’d rather take his chances with the asteroid than a bloody black hole or something. Their navigator was frantically trying to find another route, but with less than a minute ‘til impact, Smyth yelled out the only way they could possibly survive this:

“DROP OUT OF LIGHTSPEED, NOW!”

It was probably the most ungraceful drop in the history of flying, but he and Yull’in obeyed instantly. The stars through the viewport materialised. They we’re no longer hurtling towards certain death faster than the speed of light… although the surface of what certainly felt like a giant asteroid still made them all blanch.

They could barely even see beyond it, it was that close. It rose up beyond their viewport menacingly, ready to take them all out.

“Fuck me,” Yull’in muttered.

“PULL UP,” Smyth roared.

They rose, but not fast enough. Rohn only had seconds after someone screamed, “BRACE FOR IMPACT,” to keep one hand controlling their rapid ascent and the other covering his face. Then –

_BANG._

* * *

“Did you feel that?” Jyn suddenly sat bolt upright.

Cassian groggily opened his eyes, just able to see her silhouetted form.

“Jyn, come back to sleep.”

* * *

If there was an alarm in the bridge, then it was screaming.

“Is everyone all right?!” Captain Smyth yelled over the piercing sirens, gingerly emerging from where she had thrown herself under a control panel. “Karking hell, answer me, IS ANYONE HURT?”

Slowly, groans and moans echoed from around the bridge, crew members crawling out from where they had braced themselves for the impact. Incredibly, it seemed that they had just managed to scrape by the asteroid, narrowly avoiding hitting it head on. They had clearly taken on damage somewhere, but at least they all seemed to still be alive. Yull’in clamped a hand onto Rohn’s shoulder, his face dazed.

“We deserve a drink after this, mate,” he said.

“What’s our damage report?” Captain Smyth asked. She was clearly trying to keep the worry out of her voice, but she rushed to one of their screens that connected to other control stations throughout the ship. One of their officers from communications was trying to handle about twenty odd calls all coming through at once, but it was Captain Smyth who chose to first accept one from Station O-12.

The holovid cracked and sparked. Rohn recognised Officer Raleigh Mimra – they had been good drinking buddies at flight school, still got together every now and then, a decent guy – and from all their late night tests, he knew stress on his friend’s face when he saw it. Raleigh worked communications down on the orlop deck, the lowest level that housed all of the ship’s engines, and it was quite clear that things were worse than what it seemed.

“ _Oh thank god – CODE BLACK – we’ve been hit!_ ” Raleigh cried. Behind him, there were officers running, shouting, it was almost hard to tell what was actually being said. “ _Outer AND inner hulls have been breached, we had to seal off the entire front starboard compartment. There were – there were six officers still in there at the time_ –” Before Raleigh could even compose himself, someone shoved a respirator mask into his hands.

“Officer Mimra, is the damage contained?” Captain Smyth demanded to know.

“ _We don’t know, we don’t – the doors are airtight, theoretically we should be safe, but we have no idea how much damage there is, this could have hit other compartments as well – what the hell did we hit?!_ ”

“We just scraped past an asteroid.”

“ _AN ASTEROID?_ ” Raleigh winced as something clearly crashed off-screen behind him. “ _Fuck it, I’ll handle that later – what are our orders, Sir?_ ”

“Consider this an official Code Black. You know the procedure, evacuate the entire immediate area, seal absolutely every area that you can, we’re going to patch into the droids to check the damage.”

“ _Well_ ,” Raleigh, glanced around him. “ _it at least seems to be holding out here_ –”

It was like the entire side of the ship just opened up. One second Raleigh was talking to them and in the next, he was gone, his scream lost along with dozens of others. Rohn’s fingers clenched into Yull’in’s shoulders. They could only watch in horror as the hull clearly split from the damage and took out everything with it. They could see the stars as monitors, chairs, parts of control panels and ship debris, literally everything was sucked out into the unrelenting vacuum of space. Rohn could still see Raleigh, floating lifelessly.

No time to put on that respirator.

There was a ringing silence throughout the bridge.

Captain Smyth cut the feed, ignoring all of the other warning notifications and calls still trying to also come through. She hung her head for two seconds, before straightening back up and turning to her shell-shocked crew.

“We need to move fast, everyone.”

* * *

Jyn hadn’t been able to relax for what felt like the last million years, although the reality had probably only been a few standard minutes. She was exhausted, she needed to sleep, but there was too much hammering around through her brain that despite Cassian’s comforting heavy weight around her, her body still refused to unwind.

There was something terrifying and yet also thrilling about lying there with him. Krennic surely knew she was gone by now, LJ would have told him and be combing the entire ship. She was living dangerously and she knew it, but she could hardly bring herself to care. She burrowed further into his chest. At least his breathing was something steady to focus on. The threat of Krennic just fell right on top of her additional anxiety over… something. Whatever the hell it was. She would swear until she was blue in the face that she had felt something earlier. She would have called it feeling something like a slight quake if they’d been on land, but as it was she didn’t have much else to speculate on. It was probably nothing, but  _if_ it was something…

K-2SO didn’t exactly help matters by practically bowling his way in through their bedroom door.

“CASSIAN. WAKE UP NOW.”

“ _Son of a–_ ” Cassian groaned as Jyn felt her heart leap a bloody mile. “Kay, what is it?”

But K-2 seemed to have been brought up short upon realising that he wasn’t alone.

“Cassian,” he said, tone clearly affronted. “do you realise that the mark is also in your bed?”

“I’m aware.”

“She is wearing a very minimal amount of clothing.”

“I’m definitely aware.”

“This is a serious issue,” K-2 frowned. “but given the news I have to tell you, it can wait until later.”

That got Jyn’s hackles raised. Coming from K-2, anything that was considered more serious than the two of them apparently sleeping together had to be bad. She reluctantly sat up, feeling every slight bit of sleepiness draining away. Cassian followed her, arm subtly left curved around her back as he leaned into her.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I have naturally been monitoring all of the ship’s communications ever since we arrived, including the exterior droids,” K-2 rattled off without delay. “At roughly 23:40, I witnessed  _Titanic_  make a sudden and unscheduled drop out of hyperspace, only to then hit a nearby asteroid.”

Jyn felt that dread settle in her stomach.

“We hit an asteroid?” Cassian repeated.

“The ship was clearly trying to avoid it, but still hit it, yes,” K-2 explained. “I only managed to hack into a brief feed from one of the droids, since it was very quickly ripped apart.  _Titanic_  has taken on substantial damage on its lower starboard side and I know that at the very least the hull has been entirely breeched.”

Sleep was officially over. Cassian threw back the covers and Jyn immediately began searching for her clothes. “I said I felt something earlier,” she reminded Cassian as she quickly drew her shirt over her head. “We hit a kriffing asteroid!”

“How the hell could this happen?” Cassian said, clearly irate with  _Titanic’s_  crew. He shoved his feet into his boots, tossing a spare blaster over to Jyn. She caught it without thinking, despite the fact that the only times she had ever actually used one was when her papa had taught her in secret how to shoot. Krennic never had any idea, and it was that thought that made her tuck it into her belt. “This ship has an elite crew, navigators and monitors that work 24/7, the only way we hit something is if something seriously fucked up–”  

“Hyper-travel isn’t fool-proof,” Jyn pointed out.

K-2 seemed loath to admit it, but he still said she was right. “While hyper-travel has made leaps and bounds with safety procedures, there will always be an element of risk. With new matter formulating every second–”

“I get it, I get it,” Cassian cut in. “we occasionally hit things. But will the ship hold?”

“From what I saw, I calculate a 67% chance that  _Titanic_  will stay together long enough for help to arrive.”

“And the other 33%?”

“We sustained damage to one of the ship’s generators, causing a chain reaction and the entire ship to eventually shut down, including air supply and pressure.”

Jyn glanced back over at Cassian. “We have to get off this thing.”

He met her eyes across the bed. Force, five minutes ago they had been wrapped around each other, and before that they’d been even closer. A couple of weeks ago they hadn’t even know each other, she was just a girl looking for a desperate solution in a desperate situation. She was not going to let this end here, not now, not after everything.

“Yes,” Cassian agreed. “Look, we knew we needed a new plan, so this is it: we’re stealing the plans tonight and immediately leaving. I’m not going to risk our lives for this.”

“I approve of this plan,” K-2 said at once.

“Gee, the droid agrees,” Jyn muttered dryly.

“I do  _not_ approve of whatever has happened between you and Cassian,” K-2 threw out there.

“Well, lucky for you it doesn’t matter, because it’s nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me! I am a part of this mission, and making your relationship sexual in nature will change the dynamic entirely–”

“Hate to break it to you, but the dynamic has probably been  _sexual_  for a while now–”

“I was actually referring to the emotional effects this will have, but like the saying says,  _go off I guess_ –”

“OK,” Cassian hastily yelled, throwing himself between Jyn and K-2 as if they might just spring at each other if he didn’t (honestly, Jyn was considering it). “Let’s just get the plans.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seriously guys, kissing is fucking hard to write 
> 
> BUT THEY BANG!!! THE SHIP BANGS TOO!!!! get it, the 'collision' - the ship colides but so do jyn and cassian - EEEYYYYYY!!!!!! 
> 
> anyway, pls comment before i embarrass myself even more. time to get this sinking underway!  
> (i really hope yall liked it!)  
> xoxo


	6. The confrontation

If K-2SO hadn’t said anything to them, then Cassian never would have guessed that something was very, very wrong with the ship.

Charging through the corridors, absolutely nothing seemed amiss. No rumbling, grumbling or shaking. Nightlife carried on, the three of them ducking around clumps of drunken gamblers outside the entrance to the casino. Everything still worked as it should, and quite honestly Jyn was starting to wonder whether her mind was actually just losing it after all.

No, people only really started noticing when the engines suddenly cut out. 

They had been hurriedly climbing a staircase when they realised, pausing as they tried to figure out what was suddenly so different. It took a moment to grasp that the sound of the engines, that were always constantly humming in the background, had just… stopped. The lights stayed on, doors still opened, they apparently still had power, but a quick dash to the nearest viewport showed that they were no longer moving. Stars were the only things that interrupted the endless sea of black space beyond them. 

No asteroids. But then again, this was a large ship and they were currently on the portside. 

“What’s happening?” Jyn murmured. 

“First instinct for you humans in a crisis is to cease all activity. Everything has to have a kill switch somewhere,” K-2 mentioned with only a hint of derision before turning and training his gaze directly on her. “You clearly didn’t hit yours.” 

Well, apparently all the hits were being taken tonight. 

“All right, have it out,” she said, stepping forward. “Clearly you have something to say.”

“I still maintain that it was a bad idea to have sexual intercourse!” K-2 burst out, apparently unable to keep it in any longer. “Cassian, I apologise, I understand that we are on a mission but that is precisely my point. We shouldn’t be facing any of this on a mission! I thought you were better than–”

“I didn’t ask for this,” Cassian said, turning from the viewport.

Jyn blinked a little at the snap in his voice. She still didn’t really know all that much about the relationship between Cassian and his droid, but it was clear to her so far that it was a close one. They had a rapport, a way of expressing that Cassian had K-2′s back as much as K-2 had his without ever having to use words. As annoying as the droid was, she had almost appreciated his presence on the ship. She had never expected a fall out over this, but apparently Cassian was reaching a kind of breaking point alongside his droid. 

“You of all people should know that,” Cassian carried on without holding back. “You know I don’t do this, you know that I wouldn’t want this to happen, but I met her and it did, what did you want me to do?”

“Repress your feelings and remain as professional as possible,” K-2 shrugged in the most  _duh_ -like tone he had ever heard from a droid.

“Wow,” Jyn muttered.

“I tried that. Didn’t work.”

“You didn’t try hard enough!”

“Do I get to say anything here?” Jyn stuck in.

“YOU have caused enough problems!” K-2 declared.

But she had had enough as well. No, this wasn’t the right time for it, but apparently they needed to hash this out before they could get literally anything else done and K-2 wasn’t accepting any moment other than the present. Fine. She hadn’t wanted this either, but when she was in front of Cassian, she somehow couldn’t seem to look past him. It was like he filled up all the space, covered every crack, and if she could go back and make that choice to kiss him at the bow, she would do it again every time. She honestly hadn’t even had time to process everything that had happened, how she had pressed his body into the mattress with her own, how they had been silent until they got confident enough to coax the tentative moans out of each other, how she had made him dig his fingers into her back and his heart to splutter and choke…

She glanced up at him. Silhouetted by the viewport behind him, she ached to reach out, to perhaps push him up against the glass a little. Instead, she simply brushed her hand over his and knew he understood.

“I’m not sorry for how I feel,” she said, throwing a hard look at K-2. “We’re not bloody droids.”

“Are you–” K-2 seemed to be thrown a little. “You imply that I do not experience emotions. I am programmed to feel a variety, including loyalty, apprehension, and irritation. Droids can  _feel_.”

“Well, I will respect your feelings when you fucking respect ours, then!”

Without facial expressions, it was hard to tell what was whirring through K-2SO’s processers in that moment. Cassian stared at Jyn in awe, although she kept her gaze firmly on K-2, kind of fearing his reaction. Had she gone too far? But eventually, K-2 let out a soft whir which she thought might be a sigh as he hung his head.

“I concede your point, Jyn Erso,” he said. “I apologise.”

“Thank you.”

“Just please refrain from kissing in front of me?” K-2 mentioned. “I have the capability to feel all basic human emotions, and disgust is one of them.”

“We make no promises,” Cassian quickly put in, staring only at her.

Before they could act on the words, however, that was when loud voices that had been slowly approaching from a corridor beyond theirs reached a crescendo. They turned to watch several crew members practically running as they hurried past them, their words rushed and panicked.

_“Did you get a hold of Lightholler yet?”_

_“Nothing’s going through – what the hell is happening down there?”_

_“Communications is probably down, hurry up, come on!”_

The three of them exchanged looks.

“We need to keep moving,” Cassian said. 

* * *

 

Officer Kyra Landon had been sleeping at her station when she’d first gotten the call.

Now, she was forced to frantically field calls left right and centre. It was one of their pilots ( _bloody Rohn_ ) who had been the one to first call and explain what was happening, and she hadn’t exactly been amused.

“Tell me you’re fucking joking,” she had deadpanned.

“ _I’M NOT_ ,” Rohn had practically yelled down the comm. “ _We hit a kriffing asteroid and there's a fuckton of damage! You’re gonna be ordered to send out an official distress call, you have our co-ordinates, right–?_ ”

“I always have them,” Kyra had heaved herself upright out of her creaky chair, rubbing her eyes. “but are you sure you’re not fucking with me? Last time was seriously the last time I fall for one of your idiotic pranks.”

“ _DO I SOUND LIKE I’M JOKING?_ ” 

“Blimey, FINE,” Kyra had huffed out. In all her time running communications on this ship alongside the pilot, she had never heard him sound quite so panicked before. She didn’t get what the fuss was about! They’d sustained damage before and they’d always managed to pull through without having to inform the passengers, no harm, no public statement. A distress call was something different. That was…

_Beep, beep, beep._

Something dangerous.

“Oh, shit,” she had said, glancing up at her screen. “The captain’s calling me.”

“ _See!_ ” Rohn had yelled. “ _I told you!_ ”

She had believed him. Captain Smyth was quick to inform her about the collision, about how dozens of staff had already been trapped in sealed off areas, and she had felt the ice slide down into her stomach. The calls had been quick to come flooding in after that. She finally ended up ignoring all of them (all fifteen flashing red as  _urgent, urgent, urgent_ ) in order to send out their own distress signal. 

“MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY!” she called. “This is  _Titanic_! This is  _Titanic_! We’ve been hit, is there anybody out there? MAYDAY!” 

* * *

 

In the few minutes it took to reach Krennic’s suite, the amount of people in the hallways seemed to double. Other first-class passengers were rousing from bed, confused and in demand of answers about why the engines seemed to have apparently stopped.

“I have an important meeting to make in two days’ time!” one officer was yelling.

“No one said this was happening, I demand to see your schedule!” a woman in a satin robe complained.

“I want to speak to your commanding officer!” another insisted to who was clearly already the commanding officer for that deck.

“Everything is fine, Ma’am,” Jyn overheard him saying loudly. “I assure you this is just a routine engine check, everyone please return to your rooms!”

Thankfully they were still able to blend into the first-class crowds that were slowly forming. They paused before turning the corner to Krennic’s suite, allowing K-2 time to scan for lifeforms inside. 

Jyn eyed the droid with some trepidation, but apparently (and thankfully) they were genuinely moving on from the earlier spat at the viewport. Honestly, she didn’t know where that had all come from. She understood K-2′s side clearly, but as for herself... she reached back a hand, blindly grasping Cassian's for a moment as they watched for signs of movement. 

“Is he still in there?” Cassian whispered.

“No, the entire suite is empty,” K-2 answered. “I would assume that Krennic has left like all these others to go and find out what is happening.”

“It’s now or never,” he said, reluctantly. Jyn knew he had to hate going in like this, with a hastily changed plan that none of them had revised. He was apparently never anything less than prepared but in this case, they had no choice but to go when they could. He turned to exchange a glance with Jyn and she saw the anxieties sketched on his face.

“I know,” she said.

Getting in was easy considering Jyn had access. They stole inside with no one the wiser, K-2 acting as their look out from the corridor. Getting access to the plans was another matter entirely. The safe they were being kept in sat inside the nightstand next to Krennic’s bed and Jyn had self-taught herself to slice her way into things but the largest thing she’d ever managed to hack into was Krennic’s personal device whenever she had been bored. She’d never even come close to getting into the data system that had housed all of his research and she had certainly never cracked a safe before. Cassian pulled out a scramble key and offered it, but she shook her head.

“I can’t – I’ve never–”

“Whatever your skill set, you’ll be better than me,” he insisted. “Quickly.”

She knew he had to be anxious. As much as he believed her, she knew that his entire career was on the line here as well as his life, and at this point he could afford to worry about the former. She swore spectacularly when she thankfully connected the scramble key successfully, but ran into the snag they both knew had been coming.

“We can’t slice in without the safe warning Krennic that someone is trying to access it without authority.”

“We already predicted that,” Cassia said. “Don’t give in, come on–” 

“What if we get these plans, but it’s not what you want?” Jyn said. “Not what your Rebel Alliance wants–”

“We have come too far for you to freak out now,” Cassian insisted fiercely. “Jyn, in the end I don’t fucking care what’s in that safe. If it’s what the council wants to hear or not, I couldn’t care less, they aren’t the most important thing in the galaxy anymore–”

He cut himself off, staring at her as if he was just realising the magnitude of what he’d just said. The Rebel Alliance was no longer the most important thing in the rebel spy’s life. Implying that she was… sent her tail-spinning almost as if the scramble key was plugged into her brain instead of the safe. She didn’t deserve this. She spent her whole life aiding the man who had built a weapon of mass destruction, played nice to keep herself safe, she shouldn’t be important to anyone except her dead father. But here was this man crouched in front of her, eyes wide and apparently choked on his own words.

She didn’t know him at all a few weeks ago. She still didn’t really know him now. But she knew enough to trust him with her life and maybe that could be enough.

“ _Abort, Abort!_ ” She could hear K-2’s voice suddenly blearing into Cassian’s ear all the way from where she was. “ _I’ve just finished scanning the corridor and Krennic has set security to notify him whenever someone enters the room_ –”

“What?” Jyn straightened. No cameras on her, that was a rule insisted on by her father and that had been respected her entire life up until now. Krennic didn’t like it, but he needed to keep Galen happy to work, and so she hadn’t ever had to worry about someone watching her – 

“He surely knows you ran away again,” Cassian said quickly. “He would have it on so he’ll know if you came back–”

“No, you don’t understand, I’ve never had cameras on me before, something is wrong–”

The bedroom doors slid open. Before she could say much else, one of her familiar bodyguards had already grabbed her by the back of her vest and dragged her out into the living room of the suite. She only managed to catch a glimpse of LJ’s severely pissed off face before she was hitting the floor. Cassian was similarly thrown down next to her, keeping his hands up as Director Krennic moved to stand over them. Jyn’s heart pounded as he watched them with cold calculation. She rarely saw that face. If she was ever around him as a child, it was usually because she was with her father, and Krennic usually kept a reasonable, forced-friendly expression with him. For about two seconds she was certain that they were both done for.

Then Krennic turned and scowled at his bodyguards. “What do you think you’re doing being so rough with her? My dear, you must have gone through hell!” and he reached out a hand to help her up off the floor. She loathed to take it, but did when she felt Cassian subtly squeezing her calve from where they sat together. She allowed herself to get pulled to her feet and protectively into Krennic’s side. 

“Did he do anything to you? Are you hurt?” Krennic asked.

She closed her eyes. This was their chance.

“I’m fine,” she said, shortly.

“I knew he was rebel scum from the moment he introduced himself,” Krennic stared down his nose at Cassian still kneeling on the floor. His eyes she knew had probably already swept the entire room, looking to weak points, ways out. She was doing it too. 

_A) Use the blasters hidden in their clothes and kill them all_

A fight would cause attention and bodies and potential injuries that they couldn’t afford to have.

_B) Manipulate Krennic into opening the safe somehow, get the plans_

And where to from there? Too many variables, no concrete way. 

_C) Pray that K-2 could get them out of this_

Might help Cassian, probably wouldn’t help her.

So far their best bet seemed to be the second option while waiting for the third and using the first only as a last resort. Jyn closed her eyes, breathing out slowly, before turning her well-trained pampered look on Krennic and saying,

“He used me, Sir,” She threw the dirtiest look she could manage at Cassian on the floor. “Flattered me and got to know me and used me for his own gain. He wanted me to open the safe, get the Death Star plans. Joke’s on him, I couldn’t open it.”

“Of course you couldn’t, like I would allow you access,” Krennic said as if she were stupid to not realise. “You manipulated the wrong person, Sward. Or whatever your actual name is.”

 “Captain Cassian Andor, Rebel Intelligence,” Cassian spat.

“Well, Captain Andor,” Krennic’s hand, she noticed, didn’t loosen its grip at all from when it had tugged her elbow into his side. “I’m not surprised you managed to get this one under your control – she’s been weak ever since her father passed – but what I’m more curious to know,” He stepped forward, dragging Jyn with him and snapping his fingers so that his bodyguards did the same. “is how the hell you knew that I would be transporting the plans on this vessel in the first place.”

For a split second, Cassian’s eyes flickered in uncertainty, a small moment of  _oh fuck, we’re done for_. He wouldn’t betray her, she knew that, but even she couldn’t figure out another solid explanation that didn’t jeopardise her in some way. In the end, he apparently went with the vague truth.

“Guess your men aren’t as loyal as you think.”

“You’re saying that I have a spy?”

Cassian just shrugged.

Krennic clearly looked rattled by this, but he shook it off fairly quickly. “No matter,” he said. “I already have the most powerful weapon in the entire galaxy, there’s nothing even the best spy could do about it. Just you wait until the power of the Death Star is unleashed,” he dropped the smirk, anger coating his features now as he slammed a boot into Cassian’s ribs. He didn’t make a sound, but dropped to the ground immediately, Jyn’s jaw practically locked from clenching her teeth so hard.

“I think the first to go will be your precious rebellion.”

It seemed that Krennic was going to kick Cassian again, and Jyn was all but two seconds from blowing the entire thing and punching him in the face when an emergency siren suddenly sounded. It made her jump a little, even LJ twitching as it swung between high and low pitches, piercing and broken up every now and then by a voice announcing,

_Please advance to the assembly point using your nearest exit!_

“It seems that  _Titanic_ is in a bit of trouble,” Krennic added quickly then, snapping at the bodyguards. They both stormed forward and hauled Cassian to his feet. Jyn didn’t dare meet his eyes. He had to know she was acting, that this was their best way out of this, that she didn’t actually think he’d been manipulating her the entire time. They would get out of this, they would –

“You know what order I give for rebels,” Krennic snapped at the bodyguards. “But we’re apparently evacuating, everything will be locked down to prevent a hull breach. If his body is discovered there will be an investigation and I can’t risk having security snooping around. Just lock him up somewhere, if this ship is really going down then space will take care of him.”

Don’t make a sound. _Don’t make a sound_. Jyn bit her lip until it bled to force herself to stay silent while watching Cassian get dragged out of the room. All of this for nothing, they were going to beat him up and leave him for dead somewhere and if it was going to be at all worth it, then it was all up to her now. The siren that was still blaring was making her head ring but she had to concentrate – if she could just get Krennic to open the damn safe –

“Oh, thank the Force!” she declared, pulling away from Krennic the second Cassian was out of sight. “If you hadn’t come in I don’t know what I would have done.”

“He probably would have killed you, my dear,” Krennic said, sympathetically. “You’re lucky I arrived when I did, although this wouldn’t have been an issue if you just stayed in your room like you’re supposed to.”

Jyn laughed weakly, as she always did when accused of running. “Can you blame me for wanting to get out?”

“This is a serious matter, Jyn.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

His face evened out. “Oh, I know my dear. I’m just glad that you’re ok.”

Like hell he was. He was livid, seconds from losing it, but putting on a face because he thought he could still get to her.  Keep her under his control. Jyn refrained from lashing out and instead, pointed back to the safe.

“He nearly got in. You might want to check that it’s still secure.”

And Krennic started… laughing.

Honestly, it was not the reaction that she was expecting, although perhaps she should have. A second later, he slapped her across the face so hard that she staggered and nearly fell to the floor. She felt the inside of her cheek cut on her teeth, her eyes stinging as he laughed at her.

“You really thought I had no idea that you were the one who betrayed me?”

She glanced back up at Krennic, face throbbing. He stared her down, no longer the man who had cared for her since she was eight. This was the man who had murdered her father right in front of her, the one who didn’t care for appearances. She’d fucked up, oh Force had she fucked up somewhere.

“You can encrypt a holo all you like, but it’s still being sent out on my servers,” Krennic snarled at her. “I didn’t know who or what at first but I suspected. I’ve trained you well, but you were always too much of a daddy’s girl. As soon as he was gone I figured that it wouldn’t take long for you to rebel, but still I hated to have to kill you too so I kept you around in hopes that you might see sense. Apparently, you didn’t. You told the Alliance how to find you, about the Death Star plans, about everything.”

All pretences dropped, Jyn spat in his face.

“I’d rather be a dead rebel than work for you.”

He pulled his blaster on her.

“Get on your knees.”

Slowly, she sank down. He stooped forward to pat her down and found the blaster that Cassian had given her in her jacket. He threw it across the room before training his own blaster directly at her forehead.

“You can’t risk leaving a body, remember?” she pointed out.

“I might make an exception for you. I suppose I’ve always had a bit of a weakness for the Erso family, after all.”

She braced herself to spring. She was going to die here, but she wasn’t going to die without a fight. Krennic would have to shoot her ten times over before she eventually gave in. However, before she could leap for the ornate coffee table and use it as a shield, before Krennic could squeeze the trigger, the doors to the suite suddenly slid open once again.

Krennic whirled around. It took K-2SO less than two seconds to slam his fist on top of his head and send him into a heap on the pristine floor.

“Honestly,” K-2 complained. “I have to do all the work around here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEYYYOOOOO sorry this one took a little longer to get out, but it's here!!! if only jack and rose had had a K-2 with them as well, maybe they would've both survived LMAO 
> 
> Either way, I HOPE YALL LIKED IT. Honestly, thank you for all the comments so far they give me Lyfe, so please let me know what you thought!! 
> 
> I LOVE YALL   
> xoxo


	7. The race

 

The ship had finally descended into chaos.

If they had thought the corridors were crowded before, it was nothing compared to them now. Trying to shove their way through was almost useless, even with K-2 there to cut a pathway for her. The assembly point of the ship was on the highest level, where the bridge could be found, the first class dining hall and ballroom, upper level of the observation deck and most importantly, where the escape pods were. Rather unfortunately, it was this knowledge that was sending everyone into a spiral. There weren’t even that many people who had made it up that far yet, but it sure as hell felt like it for all the battling they had to do. Some were shrieking over the loud siren, fighting to make their way up the grand staircase over others. Even more were resolutely staying down in their suites.

“I don’t understand,” Jyn overheard one Imperial officer complaining to a staff member. “I don’t see anything wrong with the ship, why are we evacuating?” 

“Sir, I’m asking you to please follow procedure–”  

“I won’t be following anything unless I’m given proof that I need to get on that escape pod. I have a deadline to meet–”

A little bit further along, Jyn and K-2 had to squeeze past an entire first class family, complete with three children and a pet Tooka cat that screeched in its cage. The father of the family was yelling,

“I will not put my children through this trauma unless I have to! I want to speak to your supervisor!”

They eventually managed to battle their way out of the main crowds, skidding to a halt in a corridor outside one of the entrances to the dining hall. There was less traffic here since all of the passengers were coming from their suites in the opposite direction, where Jyn and K-2 had just escaped from. All she saw now was the occasional crew member sprinting down the hall, heard the distant screeches of the passengers. Would the siren ever cut out? She ran her hands over her face warily, wincing when she realised that she had forgotten to avoid the stinging of her cheek.

K-2 was watching her carefully.

“Is your face painful?” he asked. “Do you require first aid?”

“I’m fine,” she snapped.

“ _Sorry_ ,” K-2 threw up his hands in irritation. “It’s ok. It’s not like I just saved your life or anything, I get it.”

Jyn sighed exasperatedly.

“Kay… I’m honestly grateful,” she said. “No matter what I say, you were there for me and I thank you.”

“I wouldn’t thank me too much,” K-2 said, finally placated. “Cassian told me I had to.”

“Of course he did.”

“Do you know where Krennic’s guards would have taken him?”

“How should I kriffing know?” Jyn cried. “You weren’t the one being held against your will, didn’t you see?”

“Sorry I was a bit busy trying to figure out how to save you!”

“Well you went for slamming him on the head in the end, I’m glad you put thought into that plan–”

“If you are going to be snarky again, I will simply find Cassian myself–”

Jyn forced herself to stop a moment, stop and shut up and calm herself down. If she wanted to find him, then she would have to work with K-2, and that meant no insulting him, as difficult as that might seem at this point. Mind you, if she couldn’t concentrate on making fun of K-2, then her brain might actually turn to worrying about Cassian and if  _that_  happened, she was certain nothing would get done.

She had to be strong. Like her mama was, like her papa was.

“Ok,” she finally got herself together. “we need to think, where would they leave him?”

“Somewhere easy to lock up from the outside.”

“That’s pretty much anywhere if you destroy the entrance pad.”

“Somewhere located near Krennic’s suite.”

“Yes,” Jyn agreed. “I know those idiots, they wouldn’t want to spend too much time on this. They’d throw him somewhere quick and easy so they could scarper. Come on, you’re the stats whiz, tell me the odds!”

K-2 looked at her strangely, if that was at all possible for a droid.

“What?”

“No one… ever wants to hear the odds,” he said.

She could have laughed. 

 “Well, in this case I want to! Come on, rustbucket.”

K-2 seemed to take the nickname gracefully, he was that worked up over someone actually being excited to hear his calculations for a change. “Considering the entire layout of the  _Titanic_ that I naturally downloaded upon arrival, and the immediate surroundings of Krennic’s suite, I anticipate there being a 0.245% chance Cassian has been placed in another suite, an 11% chance he’s in a stairwell, a 22% chance he’s in a storage closet of some kind, a–”

“Ok, ok, I want to hear the odds,” Jyn hastily cut in. “but let’s skip to the highest percentage, ok?” 

“Oh. Right,” K-2 nodded. “I calculate an 87% chance that they disposed of him down a garbage chute.”

“Bless you, he’s in the trash compactor,” Jyn exclaimed. “COME ON!” 

* * *

 

Their journey down into the depths of the ship jacked her anxiety up with every step they took. The further down they travelled, the louder the siren seemed to get and the more panicked people they saw. She really grasped the gravity of the situation as at one point they ran down E deck to the next elevator bank that would take them down as far as they could go. Third-class passengers were rousing from their sleep, dazed and disorientated, and offered no explanations from the staff members since all this far down had already abandoned their posts. There were hundreds of people who weren’t going to make it onto the escape pods. 

She might be one of them, if they didn’t fucking hurry. 

Stabbing the scramble key she still had into the security port, she hacked the elevator into accessing the crew-only levels. The last image she had beyond the elevator doors before they closed was of a young third-class kid, wrapped up in a blanket and peering out from behind her bedroom door in confusion... then it was silent. 

She glanced up at K-2, who stayed resolutely staring at the elevator walls. 

“Yeah, I know,” she said. 

The furthest down they could go, their elevator opened up into a control room full of frantic crew members. Several glanced over at her and the imposing security droid as they hurried out, but most didn’t even argue their presence. Thankfully. There were more important issues going on. 

“Where to from here?” Jyn asked, her need to move clashing with the need to stand still to avoid getting trampled. 

“The schematics say access to the trash compactor is still several sub-levels down,” Kay declared. 

“How do we get there?” 

“I’d imagine through that-” He pointed out the metal fence that cordoned off a section of the middle of the control room, apparently protecting a large door that opened out in the floor. It was currently wide open, workers pouring out of it in droves, scrambling up the ladders with wild eyes and shaking hands. 

“Let’s go,” she gritted her teeth. 

The crew only started paying attention to her once she jumped the fence. “HEY! You can’t go down there!” someone yelled, but she was already skidding down to the door, swinging her legs over. 

“STOP!” 

“That area is evacuating!” 

“You’ll get trapped down there!” 

They kept shouting after her, and she disappeared from sight. K-2 was only several rungs above her, though she almost wished he was leading the way. He would have a better chance at weaving through the panicked masses that were all climbing in the opposite direction to them, climbing up, up, away from the death that was coming below. Maybe Jyn welcomed it. It was surely the only explanation that made sense at this point. 

She had refused to risk her life over a lot less in the past. 

“Keep climbing!” Kay called down to her. “I will say when we are reaching the right level!” 

They traversed through a few more check points and with every control room, the amount of crew thinned out. While it made it easier to keep going, it didn’t help dull the ringing in her head, the way her heart was almost choking her as it slammed in her throat. Someone tried to stop them as they tore through the last check point, yelling something about losing power, about how they wouldn’t make it back in time, but Jyn tore her grip out of whoever was trying to hold her back. They eventually reached the bottom of their last ladder and she found herself standing on top of a large pipe, as wide as an average freighter and only one of several that crossed through the bowels of the ship. She guessed they carried engine exhaust or fuel, but she didn’t have time to stop and marvel at the sight. Kay helped her slide down over the side and down to the metal grating floor below without breaking her legs. 

“We don’t have a lot of time,” he declared. “I haven’t got an updated schematic, but I heard what that crew member said, the warning sirens while we were climbing. This part of the ship is shutting down.” 

“What does that mean?” she asked. 

“We could be trapped.” 

She could imagine exactly what that meant. She felt ice slide down her chest, but she didn’t wait for it to settle. 

“Which way?” she demanded. 

“Down here,” Kay pointed. 

She could see the maintenance door that was labelled  _Compactor Access - WARNING! AUTHORISED PERSONAL ONLY!_  and lined with red caution signs. She slammed up against the glass, staring inside at the giant room beyond full of semi-large piles of trash and debris. 

“Do you see him?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice even. 

“My thermal sensors indicate something organic inside–” 

“ _Then why can’t I see him–?_ ” Jyn burst out, but cut herself (and K-2′s no doubt scathing reply) off when she noticed something moving out there, just beyond her line of vision below the glass window. “WAIT!” she yelled. “There! You’re taller, can you see?” 

“It’s him,” K-2 said in satisfaction, peering over her head. “If I’m not mistaken, he is attempting to create a pile of trash to climb up.” 

“CASSIAN!” she roared, slamming on the door. “ _CASSIAN!_ ” 

But no matter how much she screamed, it seemed that nothing was getting through the air locked and thoroughly soundproof doors. She couldn’t wait for him to climb his way out of there. She had to get him out. She glanced around desperately and noticed the security panel next to the door. She was sure that she had never believed so much in her slicing skills until today. Not as a nine-year-old cracking her father’s passcode so that she could play games on his datapad, and certainly not as a 21-year-old encrypting files so that they could be safely sent out to the Rebel Alliance. Hell, she apparently hadn’t even done that right. 

But she was doing this. 

“I’m getting you out of there,” she whispered determinedly. 

* * *

 

It had all gone terribly wrong.

This ship was severely damaged somehow, although to what extent he didn’t know. He had been beaten, shoved down a dangerously skinny trash chute and had quite possibly broken a rib or two when he landed on what seemed to be a pile of trash bags. He was lucky he hadn’t been impaled or something and depending on how often  _Titanic_ disposed of trash, he had anywhere from a few minutes to 12 hours to live before being shot out into the unforgiving vacuum of space.

And to top it all off, Jyn was a kriffing good actress.

He paused in his attempts to reach the maintenance staff door, climbing up the mountains of rubbish. On the plus side, it was a good sign that there currently wasn’t enough trash piled up to reach the door. On the down side, he had of course been digging and making a pile to climb for what felt like the last million years and only now did he finally seem to be getting somewhere. He rubbed a hand against his eyes, immediately regretting it since there was no telling what radioactive sludge was no doubt at home on his skin now. He knew that Jyn hadn’t been with Krennic all along. He knew,  _he knew that_ , and yet the way she had just naturally slipped back into that role, playing along with him and glaring at him like that, like he was something disgusting on her boot… it had hurt a little. And there was a small part of him that feared he would die down here –

_Please advance to the assembly point using your nearest exit!_

– especially with  _that_  still going on.

There was a clanging from above him though, that wasn’t a part of the alarm. He looked up, only to see the maintenance door he was trying to reach suddenly opening. Jyn nearly toppled out of it, K-2 not far behind.

“JYN!” he yelled.

“I see him!” he heard her cry. He wasn’t far away from reaching them, but apparently she wasn’t waiting. She dove onto the trash mountain, gracefully controlling her slide down to reach him. “I’m sorry!” she shouted at him as she approached. “I’m so sorry, I had to pretend, I had to–” 

“I know, I know, it’s ok–” She slammed into him and their lips met without him thinking. For a few seconds, he allowed himself to throw an arm around her, hold her into his body and cling to her, but in the next K-2 was yelling down from the maintenance door,

“For Force’s sake, we have to get out of here!”

“Right–” Jyn pulled back, shoving at his arm and pushing him up, pushing him to move. “We need to go fast, this area of the ship is clearly going down and if we don’t hurry–”

“We’ll go down with it, yeah–”

The siren still pulsed when they were within reach of K-2, allowing the droid to easily haul them up through the door and slamming it sealed shut behind them. It seemed that Jyn and K-2 had tracked him all the way down here, almost in the very depths of the ship. There were no fancy first class suites and ballrooms down here. It was gritty engine rooms, giant exhaust pipes with rackety ladders and catwalks suspended over them. It was cold, it was unforgiving and what hit him the most was that there weren’t any crew members left down here. The entire space was deserted save for the three of them.

“Come on, we have to go!” Jyn was tugging at his arm. He followed her at a run down the nearest corridor between two pipes bigger than themselves. Occasionally one of them hissed at them and it was when they finally hit a ladder that he noticed the marks on her face.

“He hit you?” he said, outraged.

“I’m fine,” Jyn insisted. “You go first.”

“I’m going to kill him–”

“Not if I kill him first, and not if we both die down here!” Jyn yelled in his face. “CLIMB THE FUCKING LADDER.”

He wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but her urgency could surely make any troops leap into action. He led the way up the ladder, climbing until his arms hurt and the pipes below looked normal sized. Jyn was just at his heels, K-2 bringing up the rear and thankfully it wasn’t long until he started to hear voices over the noise of the echoing siren. Above seemed to be the service hatch that allowed access to the engine rooms and there was a good deal of crew members there yelling at them to hurry up.

“IT’S CLOSING, IT’S CLOSING!” one of them was shrieking.

They apparently made it just in time. K-2 had barely squeezed his bulk through the hatch before yet another piercing alarm went off, a different one, this apparently indicating that the hatch was sealing. It slid across, Cassian heard the deadbolts locking in place and he knew without even needing to be told that there was no override. If they had still been on the other side of that hatch, there would have been no opening it again. All the doors were sealing themselves shut, a usual procedure to stop the spread of –

“Depressurisation,” Cassian realised, breathing hard as they still sat sprawled on the floor of what appeared to be a control room. “The ship is losing power?”

Jyn nodded bleakly as several crew members offered to help them up. The control room was clearly for the engineers to work in, most of the holo feeds showing them areas like the one they had just been in. Another giant screen also showed an entire blueprint of the  _Titanic_ , highlighting certain areas that had apparently already been lost.

According to some of the feeds, there were still people down there.

“We told you not to go down!” one of the crew members was saying exasperatedly to Jyn, pulling her to her feet. “By the stars, you nearly trapped yourselves.”

“Wasn’t an option not to,” Jyn just said shortly,

Cassian glanced at her once they were both standing. Then, he blatantly ignored the dozen or so other people in the room as he strode over and kissed her, fingers immediately clenching in her hair and his other arm scooping her in by the waist. She held onto his jacket, relief pouring through her. The lengths this woman had gone to, the lengths she apparently would go to… they were astounding. He didn’t think there was anyone else in the galaxy, save from K-2, who had ever cared about him that much and he felt it with every press of her lips against his.

Eventually, though, he pulled back.

“Thank you,” he murmured.

“Oh, you’re welcome,” she answered.

“ _Anyway_ ,” K-2 stressed. “We still need to find a safe route back out of here–”

“Of course,” Cassian said hastily, stepping back from Jyn. “What happened, how did you know where to find me?”

“Math, believe it or not,” Jyn smirked, glancing up at K-2. “I trusted his instincts.”

“Against your better judgement.”

“Oh, shut up, we worked together for like 2 minutes, get over it,” Jyn waved a hand dismissively. “but we ran into problems on the way here. This ship is going down big time, that asteroid apparently did some serious damage.”

“Like what?”

Jyn turned to the engineer that had helped them up. Parts of her fur Cassian noticed had seemed to have burnt off in places and her overalls a mess but she still explained for Jyn anyway. “We’re not supposed to be saying what’s happening,” she said, anxiously. “The captain doesn’t want panic–”

“But it’s a bit late for that,” Jyn added.

“So like I tried to say to these two before they went careening down without listening,” the engineer rolled her feline eyes. “The asteroid didn’t actually pierce the hull. It did severely dent it, however, and the cravats caved under the pressure. Starboard holding was first to go, and the damage caused by the vacuum apparently knocked out three of the generators. There are eight generators that power the entire ship, running from the bow all the way to the stern. Normally  _Titanic_ can take a lot of damage without losing power, one entire generator could fail and the ship would be fine, but not three all at once. If that happens, the others will eventually fail too, one by one.”

“So areas of the ship have been losing power,” K-2 quickly figured out. “Starting at the bow and gradually moving back. No power of course means no holonet connection, no communication, no doors opening, no heating and of course the most troubling, loss of gravity, pressurisation and oxygen supply. Not troubling for me, of course,” K-2 added. “I can survive without air.”

“Yeah, well, us organics have a bit of an issue here,” Jyn rolled her eyes. “We have to get to the upper levels before we get sealed in.” 

“Can’t you stop it?” Cassian asked the engineer.

“It’s all automatic,” she shook her head. “Rooms will seal themselves a little ahead of time to prevent the depressurisation spreading as the power fails. We have no control over it.” 

 _Boom_.

The room shuddered as clearly, somewhere deep within the engines something gave in. The engineer winced as the others all hastily headed for the exit. “What’s your name?” Cassian asked her.

“Arix,” she answered. “Arix Atar.”

“Let’s get out of here, Arix Atar.”

They left with the rest of the engineers. He was counting on their expert knowledge of the ship’s layout and Jyn having made this trip once already because if it were left up to him, he would be dead pretty damn soon. The corridors were like a labyrinth, impossible to navigate. They sprinted without hesitation, Arix occasionally slowing down to a sideways skip as she checked the square, yellow navigation panels that were bolted over every entrance. The string of numbers was useless to him, but she seemed to understand. “This way!” she would yell, reminding her fellow crew members where to go.

They tore through hallways, though occasionally they burst through another control centre. To Cassian’s surprise, they were all still being manned. Some clearly abandoned their posts once they noticed them fleeing but others stayed. Keeping the ship running as best they could, probably buying them time. Cassian clenched his jaw seeing it, focused on Jyn’s back in front of him. What they needed to do was more important. There were sacrifices in a war, and they still had to get the damn Death Star plans before they got lost to the wreck of the  _Titanic_. If anyone needed to survive, it was them.

He hated himself for thinking it.

They eventually burst out into a crew-only command centre, larger than all the others they had run through. It was apparently the furthest down the elevators went and they were currently crowded with workers trying to frantically pile in them. “Shit,” Arix said as they all skidded to a halt. 

“They weren’t that busy when we were coming down,” Jyn noted. 

“Going down isn’t exactly the issue,” K-2 told her. 

“We’re not getting up there in time.”

“How do you know how much time we have?”

Arix gestured to one of the many screens in the command centre. The areas that were red and flashing had definitely grown since he’d last seen an update. He noticed that the original room above the engines where they’d previously been was gone now.

“Aren’t there emergency respirators?”

“Sure,” Arix explained. “you might have an air supply, but without pressure or gravity and being deadlocked in, you’re still done for. Fucking load of good respirators will do us.”

“There has to be another way out besides the elevators!” Jyn apparently refused to let this be it. “Aren’t there stairs?”

“Nothing that you’ll make up in time.”

“Try me,” Jyn snarled. “Where are they?”

Arix didn’t look optimistic, but she still led them over to the currently open door that led to the stairwell. Footsteps currently thundered up it, hundreds of people trying to make their escape and she shook her head in desperation. “It leads all the way up, ending next to the kitchens on B deck, but the stairwell is open across all levels. Once it seals down here, it will seal every other door as well. You might make it to D or C deck, but–”

“That’s all we need,” Jyn cut in fiercely. “We’ll just keep making our way up from there.”

“But you won’t know when it’s sealing, there’s only like a minute warning!”

“Risk I’m willing to take, I refuse to die down here – are you coming or not?” Jyn shot back.

Arix, it seemed, was coming. They started climbing furiously along with everyone else and she tore after them. It didn’t take many flights for Cassian’s legs to start burning. Still, he couldn’t slow down, even for a second. Every now and then, the occasional rumble would echo throughout the stairwell, indicating that something else was failing down in the depths of the ship. He didn’t think his heart had ever beat this fast before, not even when he’d had Jyn wrapped around him. Had that seriously only been hours before?

It was probably not the best thing to be thinking about when their lives were on the line like this, but he clung to it anyway. If he didn’t, he might have gone mad with the pain from climbing. He held onto that image of Jyn’s face when he’d first pushed into her, remembered how her nails had raked his back, heels digging into his ass. It was a whole other kind of pain, a pain that he would very much like to experience again if he ever got the chance. He needed that chance. They had to make it. They had to – 

The shrill siren was the same as the one they’d witnessed earlier, red and yellow lights flashing above every single door in the stairwell.  _Warning! Warning! Loss of pressure imminent!_ that same pleasant voice chimed and the action was immediate. Everyone pelted for the nearest door. Being halfway through a flight, Cassian was almost sure they wouldn’t make it, but he had apparently underestimated Jyn’s survival instinct. He didn’t even see which deck they’d made it to, didn’t have time to read the sign before Jyn was throwing him into it. He hit the floor of the corridor beyond and all he could do was cover his head so that he wasn’t trampled. He only felt safe enough to look up until after the doors had finally sealed.

The corridor was packed, and yet it was somehow entirely silent. After their climb, people were either too exhausted to speak, or too horrified over what had just happened. Jyn wasn’t far from him and he crawled over to her, a hand reaching out and grabbing onto her sleeve.

“Kay–?” he gasped.

She gestured to where K-2 stood nearby, the only one not out of breath (considering he didn’t need breath to begin with).

“What–” he wheezed. “What about–?”

He tried to say Arix’s name, but he could hardly speak. A quick glance around them didn’t reveal her and he tried not to let the dread sink in. The doors to the stairwell were perfectly soundproof, and he was thankful since he could tell that the cacophony in there must have been deafening. They could see the hundreds of mostly crew members still trapped inside through the glass, many of them pounding on the doors to open, even though they must know it was a futile effort. Arix was among them, tears staining the fur on her face.

It wasn’t going to be long until hundreds of people would begin to asphyxiate to death.

Jyn hid her face in his hair, still crouched down next to him. “Come on,” he muttered, struggling to pull them both to their feet. He gestured for K-2 and he immediately came to help. 

“Jyn, come on.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT UP so this took a While as well but for the first time ever it hasn't been bc of my lack of motivation, but just the sheer fact that i have not had time to do it until now lmao. bc of this i have not edited the chapter as much as i usually do so uhhhh i apologise for that 
> 
> but either way, things are definitely Heating Up in the titanic au! things go boom!!! people be dYING!!! whatever shall happen next??? I HOPE YOU ALL LIKED IT 
> 
> please let me know what you think, i Live for your feedback. <3 
> 
> MUCH LOVE xoxo


	8. The sacrifice

Captain Smyth had certainly had better days.

“Where are we at?” she demanded down the comm. “Officer Lightholler –  _Officer Lightholler!_ ”

“We’ve lost communication with the entire Orlap Deck, Captain,” one of the comm officers said, fearfully. “Engine Command, all of the work stations, it’s all offline. They must have lost power–”     

“That’s ridiculous, this ship doesn’t just  _lose power_ ,” Smyth insisted. It was almost impossible that this ship should break down like that. Save for accidentally flying into a black hole or something, they had eight karking generators on this ship! It had been purposefully designed that way so that the ship could sustain damage to one and still have others to keep it going until repairs were made or help arrived. She didn’t understand how this was happening, why no one had even tried to fix whichever generator had gone down –

Wait.

“Officer,” Smyth said, rushing across the bridge to his side. “Do we have information about which parts of the ship are still currently active?”

“Yeah, sure,” the officer’s voice was wobbling, but he still brought up the image. The layout of the entire ship stared back at her, confirming Smyth’s fears. They hadn’t just taken on damage to one generator in the asteroid collision. It had taken out three of them.

She had never heard of a ship ever surviving that amount of damage before, and she’d been a pilot the last thirty years.

“As – as you can see,” the officer began. “The collision caused the hull breach, which in turn caused all of holding to get sucked out into the vacuum. There were a lot of things down there and it looks like that’s when the debris took out the generators. Suddenly exposed to the outside like that, no one had enough time to suit up and make repairs before they asphyxiated.”

“Can our droids make repairs?”

“I think Droid Maintenance said they were attempting to make an analysis of the situation so they could go in – hold on –” The officer quickly made the connection down the comm. “Hey, Mason! Mason, did the droids have any luck down there? … MASON!”

Static.

“Don’t even bother,” someone else called out then as they hurried past. “We lost the droids around half an hour ago.”

“Officer,” Smyth reluctantly asked, closing her eyes. “Exactly how many crew are still in the sealed off areas?”

The officer typed hesitantly.

“Approximately 250 lifeforms are indicated as being in the sealed off areas, Captain.”

 _Sithspawn_. There was no coming back from this. Nothing was going to stop  _Titanic_  from losing power entirely now and with over 200 of her crew already dead, this was a media nightmare. She slammed a hand down onto the consol in frustration, making the officer jump before yelling out,

“Has anyone else responded to our distress signals yet?”

“ _There’s another ship in the immediate area, but she isn’t responding to our calls_ ,” their Chief Navigator answered her, Kyra Landon’s stressed face visible on one of the monitors. “ _We also got an answer back from Carpathia, she said that she’ll make it here within four standard hours_.”

“We’ll all be dead by the time she gets here,” Smyth cursed. “Where are we with evacuation?”

“Still underway, but Captain–” Her officer from before hesitated before pointing out, “Our escape pods don’t have the capacity to hold everyone on board–”

“Yes,” Smyth gripped the edge of the bridge railing, staring out at the expanse of space in front of them through the viewport. “I’m well aware.”

* * *

 

They had apparently made it all the way to C deck before the stairwell had sealed off.

Under any other circumstances, Cassian might have been impressed with how fast and how far they had managed to run, but he still couldn’t get Arix’s face out of his head. He couldn’t forget how stricken she had looked, how terrified… she would have eventually fallen back into the loss of gravity, floating away without air, without pressure, eventually choking to death along with hundreds of others.

He couldn’t think about it and yet it was also all he could think about. 

They needed to move, however, and he allowed K-2 to shove them both hard towards the nearest staircase. They finally burst out somewhere along the main promenade, along with hordes of other panicked people trying to evacuate.

“Respirators!” someone was yelling as they battled their way through the crowd. “Please put on your respirators!”

Others, Cassian noticed, were already wearing the small nose and mouth guards that easily suctioned to the face. Designed to fit most humanoid shapes, no one should have been arguing, except it seemed that many were of the opinion that there was no need to wear them yet.

“I don’t see anyone else dropping dead!” a rather elderly woman was exclaiming only ten feet or so away.

“Ew, this is  _so_  ugly,” a teenager said, holding out the respirator that they’d been given in distaste.

“Ok,” he turned to Jyn then, narrowing his focus onto her. “we need to think. We need to get the plans and get off this thing without dying. I am open to all suggestions, here.”

“Well, we got the whole Death Star plans thing sorted at least,” Jyn mentioned.

“Wait… what?”

He stared at her a moment as he watched Jyn and Kay apparently share a moment of solidarity. They turned and exchanged exasperated looks with each other, almost comically sighing together at him. He didn’t expect  _that_ , but truthfully, he wasn’t sure where Jyn’s mind was at all at the moment. She had cried so hard after their climb, but had quickly wiped away the tears and seemed to have all but shaken it off… either way, K-2SO expelled a small disk from his chest for him to see and Cassian marvelled in disbelief.

“You –”

“– have had these the entire time?” Jyn said. “Of course.”

“Come on, I was admittedly a bit preoccupied, what with being thrown into the trash compactor and running for my life,” Cassian tried not to sound so sheepish.

Jyn just shook her head. “After they took you away, Krennic made a dramatic point of revealing that he knew I had betrayed him the whole time. He was going to shoot me and I would have been very dead if Kay hadn’t knocked Krennic out. We used his hand to open the safe and steal the plans before coming to find you. He might’ve gotten some carpet burn in the process. I might not have cared.”

Cassian stepped in and kissed her quickly.

“I am in awe of you.”

“Shove off,” Jyn muttered, though it sounded as though she was trying not to look too pleased with herself. “We still have to do the whole ‘getting off this thing without dying’ part.”

“Kay,” Cassian turned to his droid. “Tell me the odds.”

K-2 appeared to positively buzz with enthusiasm at that, and Cassian honestly couldn’t blame him. He had been asked for the odds twice in one night, it had to be pretty much a dream come true for him. “The amount of escape pods that  _Titanic_  has is not enough to hold the entire passenger and crew manifest,” he declared. “It was never thought the ship could take on enough damage to lose her completely, and so the escape pods were designed to move people from here to a nearby rescue ship rather than to simultaneously hold everyone.”

“So essentially, we’re fucked.”

“We need to get on an escape pod before they run out of room,” K-2 nodded. “Otherwise yes, we will indeed be fucked.”

“There’s another option,” Jyn suddenly cut in. “Krennic’s shuttle.”

“He has a shuttle on board?” Cassian began before shaking his head. “Wait, naturally he has his own private shuttle on board.”

“Normally we would have flown to Scarif on that,” Jyn said. “but of course he was using the  _Titanic_  to protect the plans. That totally worked out for him.”

“But where is it?” Private shuttles and other such luggage were surely kept down in holding, which was also one of the first known places that had already lost power. It might have been ridiculous to even suggest the idea, all depending on how impossible it would be to reach.

However, apparently K-2 had downloaded more information than Cassian had realised. “ _Titanic_  has a small hangar,” he supplied for them. “Located at the stern of the ship and accessible via E deck. If Krennic has a shuttle on board, it is most likely to be stored there.”

“Can we afford to go down that many levels?”

“Power is being lost from front to back,” K-2 said. “Spreading up the ship that way. Theoretically, we should have more time since we are moving further away.”

“Good enough for me!” Jyn pointed out.

However, Cassian hesitated. The plan was logical, the plan made sense. He had been trained to follow plans after all, but when things fell through and lives suddenly went on the line, Cassian knew that gut instinct is what everyone always fell back on. Humans and many other races naturally banded together for survival and it went against every instinct to move away from the crowds. They were social creatures, relying on each other for support and it felt wrong to go against that, but it all came down to whether he trusted Jyn more than his instincts. She knew he trusted her with his life. He trusted her with the plans that Kay was currently storing back inside him and he trusted her to know what she was talking about. If she said they had a better chance if they went after Krennic’s ship instead, then he believed her.

He was nothing if he didn’t believe her.

“Ok,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Their push through the crowd was a rougher experience than Cassian originally anticipated. To reach the stern of the ship they had to get right past the port escape pods, where many crew officers were attempting to control the evacuation. Half of the passengers didn’t want to get on. The other half did, but weren’t allowed to considering the crew kept yelling over the heads, “Imperial officers and their families only!  _Get back_ , only people affiliated with the Empire!” He noticed Jyn gritting her teeth as she watched one clearly rather rich woman outright refusing to get on board with her Imp husband, causing the officer to jettison the escape pod with barely 30 people on board.

“They can’t –” She stopped point blank in the middle of the crowd. He had to reach back and tug on her arm, dragging her after him once more.

“We can’t stop, Jyn.”

“But they–!”

“I know,” Cassian stayed staring resolutely ahead. His hand was firm around her wrist, but then slid down to squeeze her hand. “ _I know_.”

They still hadn’t broken completely through the crowds when they ran into people they knew. Jyn was clinging onto Cassian’s hand still, trying to pull him through, when suddenly someone slammed into her and arms went around her shoulders.

“ _You’re ok! You’re ok!_ ” Shara Bey was yelling.

Jyn let go of Cassian to fiercely hug her back, Kes Dameron apparently not far behind his wife. “So are you guys!” Jyn exclaimed as Cassian found himself getting rather spectacularly hugged as well by Kes. He staggered back at the sudden weight, blinking a little, but quickly remembered to clap him on the back in return.  

“What the karking hell is going on?” Shara asked as they both eventually pulled away. “There’s so many people, we can’t even figure out–”

“ _Titanic_  is losing power, Shara.”

That made her and Kes fall silent. Still getting jostled by the crowd, Cassian noticed them both glance over at him for confirmation and he nodded his agreement that Jyn was right. Shara let out a long breath before saying,

“Shit.”

“The whole ship?” Kes asked.

“Eventually yeah, the whole thing,” Jyn said. “We’ve already seen it happening, it started when we accidentally hit an asteroid.”

“Is  _that_ what that was?” Kes said, turning to Shara. “I told you it was something big!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shara rolled her eyes. “Look, is the entire ship seriously going?”

“Yes,” Jyn stressed. “We’re all gonna be dead in less than two hours unless you get yourselves on an escape pod out of here quick.”

“Is that what you guys are doing?”

“We would, but we’ve had to come up with a new approach,” Cassian said in distaste. “It’s Imps only allowed up here.”

Honestly, his stomach was still rolling from witnessing such a thing. However, rather than be deterred or disgusted by that statement, Kes incredibly split into a grin. He clapped Cassian on the shoulder and said, “But that could work! You’re undercover, right? You never outright said, but we could tell.”

“Of course!” Shara exclaimed.

It seemed that Jyn had figured out what idea they were thinking of straight away.

“You’re Joreth Sward,” she said, voice low. “You’re Imperial. We both are, technically. We could get us a place on the escape pods.”

Cassian stared hard.

But he wasn’t Joreth Sward. He was just a man who was desperate to be himself again but didn’t quite know how. Maybe a mission that could make or break the galaxy hadn’t been the best place for an identity crisis, and  _maybe_  breaking cover hadn’t exactly been the smartest plan in the world, but it had at least meant that he had managed to find Cassian Andor again, underneath all the masks, the lies, the murder and the shots fired for the greater good. Force knew that he wanted to use their Imperial covers to save themselves. K-2SO would say it was a smart idea.

But he wasn’t going to be smart.

“No,” he said.

Jyn nodded, clearly already guessing where his mind had gone.

“Are you sure?” she asked.  

“But we could–” Kes began.

“ _I said no_ ,” His tone was fierce, and it made Kes draw back instantly. Cassian scrubbed a hand over his eyes and carried on, “Look… I’m sorry for snapping – but I won’t do it. I’ve spent enough of my life pretending to be someone I’m not. I won’t take up space that should be held by someone else. I won’t be anyone other than Cassian Andor on this ship, and if he doesn’t get a place on those escape pods, then so be it. We’ll take the other option.”

“I get it,” Kes nodded slowly. “but it’s Imperials who get to escape. It’s not like…”

He trailed off probably because they all knew exactly what he was going to say.  _It’s not like they matter_. But who were they to pick and choose who got to live and who got to die? Kes apparently knew the response to that statement before he even finished. Cassian nodded as Shara squeezed her husband’s shoulder.

“Not everyone who’s Imperial is evil,” Cassian said. “Some are doing this against their will, some are just as much prisoners as POW’s, some just don’t have any other options to protect their families. Not everyone who is first class is Imperial either, and we don’t get the right to decide… but you guys should go.”

“What?” Shara asked.

“I won’t abuse my power to save myself,” Cassian said. “but if I can save at least someone, then I want to save you guys. All of you,” he looked around their group, at silent K-2SO, desperate Kes and understanding Shara, at Jyn who’s fingernails he noticed were digging into her palms. “I’ll get you all on an escape pod, you can get out of here.”  

Jyn had already opened her mouth to argue, but Shara still managed to beat her to it. 

“No way,” she declared, turning back to him. “If you won’t do it, then we won’t either!”

“We’re staying together,” Jyn thundered.

“We’ll find another way,” Kes nodded.

“Cassian’s plan is the most logical,” K-2 helpfully put out there.

“There’s a time and a place for logic,” Jyn replied. “Now isn’t it, Kay.”

He wasn’t happy about it. Knowing that Jyn could be safely out of here and that she was fighting to remain at his side, he felt too many things at once. He was somehow angry, relieved and guilty all at the same time. Hell, he should be forcing her onto the damn escape pod! But then there was also a part of him that said if he was going to die, he didn’t want to die alone and his hand instinctively reached out to grip hers before he realised what he was doing. He knew the look in her eyes. She would never forgive him if he did it.

If he refused to go, then she would refuse too.  

Still, he hated not being able to do anything. His eyes slid over her shoulders as he attempted to pull himself together and that was when he noticed the man. It seemed that him and the rest of his young family were attempting to get on the nearest escape pod, although it wasn’t with much success. Made up of the parents and their three children, the crew member was pushing them back while gesturing for a group of Imperial officers to come through and board.

“I’ve already told you, sir!” he barked. “Imperial only! No identification, no boarding.”

“For Force’s sake, at least let the children go!” the father roared. His daughter, who couldn’t have been older than five, clung to his leg as she cried, a stuffed tooka cat tucked into her pyjama pocket.

The crew member was apparently adamant, and clicked over his shoulder for one of the hulking security guards. Before Cassian could catch what happened next, however, someone slammed into Jyn from behind as they rushed past, making her gasp as they hit her tender cheek. He gripped her arm as she staggered, keeping her upright. “We have to get going,” she reminded them all.

Cassian couldn’t take his eyes away from the family.

“Not before doing just one thing.”

Seconds from being forcibly dragged away, Cassian suddenly strode through the crowd, ignoring Jyn’s calls after him and pushing until he was hastily cutting in and approaching the family.

“Todd!” he called out loudly, clapping the father on the shoulder. “There you are! Good to see you all made it up here, why are you not on board yet?”

The father looked a little startled to have a complete stranger come up to him and treat him as an old friend, but thankfully he didn’t miss a beat. “This guy says Imperial only.”

“Forgot your I.D. down below? Don’t worry, I think a lot of people did,” Cassian said in understanding. He whipped out the scandoc from his jacket pocket, flashing it in front of the overwhelmed crew member. “He’s with me,” Cassian declared with such a sense of finality, the crew member had to know there was no fighting him on the matter. “let them board now.”

The security didn’t fall back until the crew member waved a hand.

“Uhh… you can go through.”

As the mother quickly ushered their children through onto the escape pod, the father turned and grabbed Cassian’s arm before he could melt away back into the crowd. “ _Thank you_ ,” he mouthed. Cassian nodded shortly, before quickly breaking free and striding back to his friends. He didn’t stop once he reached their group once more, just pulling on Jyn and Kes’ shoulders in indication that they should follow him back through the crowd.

“Keep moving, it’s time to go.”

“Cassian–”

“There’s no time–”

“ _Cassian_ ,” Jyn skipped up onto her toes since he refused to slow down while she quickly kissed his cheek. “You’re a good person.”

“I can’t save them all,” he bit back.

“No,” she said. “but you saved them. That counts for something.”

His shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.

“We need to keep moving,” he said.

* * *

 

Thankfully, the further back they moved, the sparser the crowds became. They passed clumps of people all huddled around the evenly placed viewports throughout the side of the ship. “I can’t see anything wrong at all!” they heard people saying, several others agreeing. Once they found the right stairwell and moved further down into the depths of the ship, they came across even more passengers who were clearly lost in the winding corridors, either unable to understand the confusing navigational plaques or unable to understand basic at all. They did their best to try and point in the right direction, but Jyn feared they just confused a lot of people even more.

They followed the signs towards the hangar, but funny thing was it seemed that for the hundreds of people upstairs, there were plenty more down here who’d apparently had the same idea as them. Upon bursting into the hangar, it was to find dozens of people yelling at either families with their own private shuttles, or business dealers moving cargo to also let them board their vehicles. Even more were Imperials who point blank ignored the civilian’s pleas, firing up and joining the long queue of shuttles waiting to exit the hangar airlock. Jyn started searching for the  _Delta_ -class T-3c shuttle that was as familiar to her as much as she hated the very sight of it. She’d spent countless hours of her life on the thing, shuttled from here to there, wherever Krennic had wanted her and papa. Shoved around like rock tossing in an endless ocean, helpless to do anything about it.

That ended today.

When she finally saw the right shuttle, she felt her stomach drop out.

“Cassian,” she said, throat dry. “we have a problem.”

“What?”

She just pointed. He turned in time to see that Director Orson Krennic was apparently not dead from his blow to the head and was also probably super pissed about the fact that he did not have the Death Star plans anymore. He was yelling at LJ to hurry with the start-up sequence, the other gormless idiot literally having to fight people off the loading ramp so that they couldn’t all storm the shuttle and climb aboard.

Cassian uttered a curse that she couldn’t understand, but made Kes and Shara both mutter in agreement.

“We can’t kill him and take it,” he said. “Not in this hangar full of panicked people. It would start a riot.”

“How many weapons have you got?”

“Two blasters – and I gave one of them to you.”

They turned to Kes and Shara who immediately shook their heads.

“I wouldn’t even know what to do with one!” Kes exclaimed.

Not enough to outgun them or overpower them. Jyn stared desperately at the shuttle that was one of their last chances of getting out of here, slowly starting to leave.

“There has to be something we can do–”

“There is,” Cassian quickly said. “You need to give yourself up.”

Jyn blinked at him.

“Excuse me?”

“I’m serious this time. Go to him,” Cassian’s face was deliberately blank, controlled. Nothing was getting through at all. “Surrender. Use the plans as leverage to get him to take you with him. Use the shuttle to transmit the plans out, send them to the Alliance, K-2 will give you the coordinates. You’re strong, I know you’ll figure out a way to get away from him–”

“If you think I’m just going to leave you here, you can bloody well think again–”

“ _Jyn_ ,” Cassian grabbed her shoulders, squeezing tight. “You sent a holovid to the Alliance asking for help. This is me doing my job and helping you. You have to forget whatever we have, that doesn’t matter. Those plans are more important than us. They’re more important than Kes or Shara, or your father, or even the entire galaxy.”

She could feel the tension in him, the desperation. She hadn’t been at all surprised by his gallant attempt at getting her onto the escape pods earlier, but she knew the man could be stubborn and she knew he wasn’t going to let her back down from this one, as much as she didn’t like it. He was Cassian Andor, a rebel, and had been almost his entire life. He was used to making sacrifices. He understood the bigger picture. Jyn wanted to hit him almost as much as she wanted to kiss him.

“You come too,” she tried, but he shook his head.

“It only takes one to blackmail, and he doesn’t care about me. He’d kill me on sight. But he knows you. He’ll listen to you.”

She couldn’t leave him.  

She had to.

She knew it. It was her father’s legacy, his promise to do his best to bring the Empire down and it would all be for nothing if she didn’t get the plans out. She turned to K-2 and he calculated for a moment, no doubt downloading the Alliance HQ co-ordinates onto the plans for her. Once he ejected them, she took it quickly, gripping the plans between her fingers so that they could be seen as she approached, before then turning and glancing up at the man who had completely changed her life. What was she even supposed to say to him? She found that her throat was stuck and he simply took her free hand and kissed her knuckles.

“I know,” he murmured. “Go, Jyn.”

She forced herself to turn around and walk away. His hand held onto hers until the last second, until his fingertips were pulled from hers and she forced herself to hold it together and not look back. Don’t look at him, don’t look at the only friends you’ve managed to make your entire life, just keep walking and do what you need to because this is what happens. This is how it always ends. No one stays, it’s always just her at the end of it all…

Leveraging Krennic went over about as well as she imagined. “Hey, boys,” she ended up going with, calling up the loading ramp just as it was retracting. “You’re missing a passenger!”

The ramp halted immediately.

“Jyn,” Krennic made it very clear that his smile was scathing. Waiting at the top of the ramp, she at least noticed with some satisfaction the red swell that was forming at his hairline. She forgot to thank K-2 for that. “I guess I should have expected something like this. I’m assuming you have the plans?”

She waved them in the air in front of her. “Right here.”

“Of course. You want to come aboard?”

“You know it,” she at least got good satisfaction out of training her blaster right at his face. “You’re going to throw all your weapons into the airlock. You’re going to get me off this dying ship. You’re going to let me use your comm system and then you’re going to drop me off on whatever the hell planet I want. If you don’t… I shoot you.”

“I think I get it,” Krennic rolled his eyes before snapping his fingers at her. “Well, come on then.”

She felt nothing but dread as she walked up the ramp. This shuttle represented all the times she couldn’t escape, all the times that Krennic had taken her to wherever he wanted, wherever he decided, no matter what she or her papa had wanted. She tried to remind herself that she was in charge, that she had the control now, but…

Krennic inched too close for her liking once she made it all the way up, but a jab in his stomach made him move away in exasperation. She kept the blaster trained on him, but her eyes were somewhere else entirely. Across the hangar, she could still see Cassian watching, K-2 no longer a formidable figure behind him, but an almost comforting one. He was far away enough that she could only just meet his eyes, see his face and it was no longer the rebellion spy watching her leave. It was the man who she had shared a bed with, shared a kiss with at the bow of this dying ship. There were no masks for her to get through anymore. The spy was gone and all that was left behind was a man that was simply terrified.

When would she ever find a connection like that again? Was it even possible? Her life under Krennic’s rule had been so isolating that she was almost convinced that she had simply latched on to the first person who had shown her kindness, but there was more to it than that. Cassian made her see that another life was possible. That there were answers out there, a universe, a future without war in it, and it made her want to  _live_. With his soft smile, fierce protectiveness and the resilience to do the right thing, he made her want to survive.

All her life people left her, but that was when she realised that Cassian was the only one who had actually stayed. He had spent his entire time on this ship fighting his own demons just as she had been fighting her own, and if Cassian could eventually figure out who he was again, then she didn’t have to be alone anymore.

She was  _tired_  of being alone.   

It was stupid, but her body reacted probably before her brain had even realised that she’d made the decision. With the ramp closing, she used the last few seconds to move and make a sudden leap out. She heard Krennic yelling, but then the ramp was closed and she was falling, hitting the hangar floor  _hard_ , and then she was running as fast as she goddamn could. There were too many people, too many shuttles to dodge through, but she couldn’t stop. She had to find him, she had to –

“JYN!”

“ _Cassian!_ ” She battled her way through the last of the passengers before she was slamming into him, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his neck. They swayed together several moments until apparently Cassian couldn’t contain himself.

“You’re such an idiot!” he said, before kissing her desperately. “ _Jyn_ –” Another kiss. “Why the hell did you do that? You’re so kriffing stupid–”

“I couldn’t do it,” She clipped the plans to her belt so that she could hold his face, thumb stroking his cheek. “I just couldn’t, not without – it’s me and you, yeah?”

He sighed, but kissed her again, his breath mixing with hers and making her finally feel like where she was supposed to be. She had probably just fucked up their only chance, but at least in that moment, she didn’t care.

“Yeah,” Cassian agreed.

“GUYS!” Someone suddenly tugged on her shoulder, shoving them off-balance. Seconds later, a shot blazed right through where their heads had been and Kes was there yelling at them.

“He’s coming! RUN!”

Jyn glanced behind her, but only got a glimpse of Krennic through the crowds before Cassian was shoving her forward. He looked livid and quite honestly, it was only the second time in her life that she’d seen him fire a weapon for himself.

The first time had been when he’d shot her father.

A second shot hissed through the air past them and slammed into the hull of a freighter. They sprinted for the hangar entrance, pelting down the corridor beyond. The constant flow of people down here didn’t exactly help matters. They barely managed to avoid another shot as they all swung around a corner.

“Head up, head up!” Kes called out. “We can lose him in the crowds!”

“This way!” Shara pointed in the direction of the third-class cabins.

Jyn vaguely recognised the common room where they had first met, the room where she and Cassian had danced together. They cut through it, glasses behind the bar exploding behind them. She faltered, but K-2 was catching up with them then and he grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, forcing her on forward. The crowds started to thicken by the time they had found the main staircase that would lead to the upper decks… however, turns out there was a reason for that.

“LET US THROUGH,” she heard outraged cries, indiscernible shouts. A quick glance up the staircase made it clear that a set of emergency doors had been already closed at the top, a  _Titanic_  crew member attempting to control the melee through the Plexiglas.

“Just put on your respirators and return to your cabins, everything will be fine!” he was calling through the door intercom.

“They ordered a fucking evacuation, you son of a Hutt!” someone yelled out.

“We’ll die down here!”

“Let us through!”

“Shit, they’ve sealed the doors–” Cassian skidded to a halt, tone half alarm, half disgust.

“Those bastards–”

They didn’t have time to dwell. Krennic hurtled round the corner and his blast was sent somewhere into the crowd. “COME ON,” Jyn was the one to shove this time, praying that her small frame would be enough to shield Cassian’s. Apparently, the main staircase wasn’t the only place they had blocked off; every stairwell, every service corridor, every nook and cranny was met with a dead end. It wasn’t long before they were no doubt reaching unsafe areas of the ship. The lights were failing down here until only the red glow of a back-up supply somewhere kicked in. They needed a plan, fast. Twice, they were forced to turn around or face somewhere without power at all. Finally, they ended up breaking into a crew control room that was entirely abandoned, only to find that every door was already sealed shut, the rooms beyond cold, infallible.

Like this one was going to be soon, apparently.

“What do we do?” Shara said.

Out of breath, Jyn was almost glad that this seemed to be the end of the line. She couldn’t run anymore.

“You give me the plans,” Krennic snarled, stepping into the room.

He was red-faced and his cape was half ripped from his shoulders, but now that they were sitting targets she knew that his aim wouldn’t miss this time. The five of them backed up slowly together, Jyn wracking her brain for any way out, but the plans were honestly their only bargaining chip.

_(Either way they had better sort something out soon, otherwise they would all be dead)._

“Here’s another idea,” Jyn suggested. “You go to hell.”

Krennic just laughed.

Then shot Shara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ......................sorry lol TOLD U NO ONE IS SAFE 
> 
> i really tried to capture the war in jyn and cassian's heads in this chapter and i'm not entirely sure i suceeded? it was hard to justify jyn taking her flying leap off the lifeboat bc unlike the original titanic, the entire galaxy is at stake here. but if cassian is taking the right road rather than the easy one, then im figuring that jyn wouldn't be able to take the easy option either? at least that's how im justifying it in my head and i hope it works lol   
> ALSO im sure there are soooo many plotholes in this its not funny but to protect my sanity pls overlook them hahahahadhjfdjfj 
> 
> ANYWAY i know no one really cares about this fic anymore apart from like a handful of people lmao but i hope you enjoyed this!!!!!! thank you so so much for those who comment, pls let me know what you think!!   
> xoxo


	9. The end of the road

Hit square in the chest, she fell like a ton of bricks. Jyn barely registered Kes’ hoarse cry and Cassian’s grip on her jacket. She could only watch Shara die in front of her like her mama had, like her papa had. She did this, she caused this. They all needed to get far away from her, because all she did was get people killed and Shara’s eyes were shining for a moment before Jyn saw the life leave them.

Krennic’s blaster was now pointing at Cassian.

“How many more people do I have to kill to make you do what I want?” he asked, exasperatedly.

“None,” Jyn insisted. “I’ll give you the plans.”

“ _Jyn_ –” Cassian started.

“Statistically speaking, if you give him the plans he will then just kill us all anyway,” K-2 pointed out.

“Your droid is smart,” Krennic added.

Jyn knew, she  _knew_ , but what the hell else were they supposed to do? She realised dimly that she must have lost her weapon in the mad leap off Krennic’s shuttle since it wasn’t on her and she had no idea how fast Cassian could pull his. They had no other advantages, nothing to give them leverage or help in any way. Somewhere not too distantly, a familiar and dread-inducing siren was going off, indicating that loss of power was heading their way. If she did nothing, they would die ( _along with Shara, who’s limbs were spread out on the floor like Papa’s had been, god she was her friend, it wasn’t fair –_ ). If she handed over the plans, they would also die. There was no way around this, no way out, but she wasn’t destined to die here, she was so kriffing certain of that –

Kes suddenly launched himself at Krennic with a wild shout.

It was probably only the surprise that kept Krennic from shooting him in the head. As such, the shot hit Kes in the thigh, but by that point he was on top of Krennic and slamming him into the control room floor. The blaster skidded across the grating and Cassian immediately stooped to pick it up, yelling, “GO! JYN, GO!”

Krennic was no match for the enraged Kes. He fought to throw him off him, but soon Kes had him pinned in a choke-hold. She hesitated, wanting to help, but K-2 grabbed her by the jacket and literally threw her out the door. Cassian followed, but it was only when the lights above the door started screaming when she realised that the darkness that had been coming for them was apparently here.

“KES!” she yelled, but he didn’t move from strangling Krennic.

“ _KES!_ ”

“I’ll hold him here,” Kes called back without glancing up. “You guys go save the world.”

“NO – we’re about to lose power, you’ll – KES!” Jyn’s voice screeched in panic, but Cassian already understood. He pushed her back, slamming the button to close the door with his fist and she yelled, fighting him. Before she could wrench herself free, Cassian had already shot the door control panel with the stolen blaster, essentially locking the door for good. Finally, he let go of her, and she threw herself up against the metal, slamming a fist against the glass panel.

“NO – KES, SHARA – NO!”

Kes knew what was coming. He had to. It seemed that the most important thing was getting revenge for his wife, though, since no amount of her screaming through the door deterred him. He held Krennic down with satisfaction, silent tears creating streams down his face. The worst part was that Jyn understood. She knew that no matter what happened, he wanted to stay with Shara and a part of her wished that she’d had a chance to murder Krennic like this after her papa had been sent sprawled over the floor. In another life, another universe, that would be her in there and she wouldn’t regret it at all. She would be the one squeezing the life out of Krennic, heart hammering in her throat as the lights suddenly failed and pressure and gravity was lost. She would keep squeezing, fingers digging into the skin until eventually only the lack of air would make her pass out and let go.

Kes’ grip slipped from Krennic’s neck.

Jyn shouldn’t have been crying so much. She barely knew the couple, known them literally days, but they had been the first friends she’d had in… pretty much ever. And they died like everyone else she knew died, taken away from her because apparently that’s where everything she loves eventually ends up. She pressed her forehead to the glass and sobbed because Krennic was dead, the man who had ruled her life, who had pretended to coddle her as a child and tortured her as an adult, she cried because the man who killed her father was also dead and that brought her a great sense of guilty satisfaction.

Eventually, hands were reaching out and gently squeezing her shoulders. She turned and threw herself into Cassian’s arms, sobbing into his shirt. He only held her tight for a few moments, free hand stroking back her hair, since it was then it finally registered that more sirens were going off in their current hallway. “We have to move,” he said, lips pressed to her forehead. “We can cry later, Jyn,  _we have to move_ –”

She nodded.

* * *

 

They ran.

It seemed that all her life she’d done nothing but run. Run away from Krennic, run away from the tough decisions, run away from it all. The first time she thought she had actually stood up and held her ground had probably been when she’d filmed and sent her holovid to the rebellion. For the first time in her life, she’d actually acted in the hopes that something could change and no matter good or bad, change it certainly had. She still couldn’t figure out if she was in a bad situation now, quite honestly. They were on a dying ship, their only friends dead and with no discernible plan out… however, they were together. They had met and Cassian was pulling on her hand as they ran. They had the plans and their lives and so far, that could be considered a step up from anything.

“What is our plan?” K-2SO called out over them. “I don’t need odds to tell me that blindly running will not be effective in our efforts to escape.”

They skidded to a halt. “The hangar,” Jyn wheezed, clutching at her side. “It’s still our best chance. We won’t make it back upstairs in time, and there’s no guarantee there’s even any escape pods left if we did.”

Cassian nodded at her, but his eyes didn’t move away. She knew she had to still be red-faced and looking like she was about to break, but she wasn’t ready to get into it again.

“What?” she huffed.

“Are you ok?” he asked, quietly.

“We don’t have time for this,” she snapped. “No, I’m not ok Cassian, I’m barely holding it together, but I want to fucking survive, ok?”

“I know – I’m sorry–” He reached out and gripped her shoulders.

She might’ve thought he was doing fine. Sure, he’d been thrown in a trash compactor, nearly killed multiple times and watched their only allies choke right in front of them, but he’d remained outwardly calm pretty much this entire time. Only the too-tight grip of his fingers gave him away and so she relented for just a moment.

Her hands snaked up his chest, held his neck and face. “Are  _you_  ok?” she murmured.

He stepped into her space and kissed her.  _No,_ it said.  _No, I’m not, but you’re here_. She let him cling, hold her like she was the last respirator left. His body shook. She breathed through his kiss, just grateful that he was at least still there with her. They would make it out alive and deal with it all later, because not making it out simply wasn’t an option. She wrapped her arms around his neck, hauling herself in closer.

They were going to be ok.

A loud scream and surge of yelling and thundering footsteps broke them apart. Jyn turned behind them to see that a group of desperate passengers were apparently attempting to break through the nearest door to their corridor which had already been sealed shut. Where the hell someone got the grenade from, she had absolutely no idea – maybe they weren’t the only rebels on boards – but she saw the smallest glimpse of it on the other side of the glass and she knew what was about to happen.

Immediately, she reacted.

“RUN!” she yelled, shoving Cassian.

They got only a few metres way before the explosion hit. Fire alarms joined the ever-present evacuation siren. Blown off their feet, Jyn felt something smack into her side hard before she hit the floor. They weren’t the only ones. Cries and the sounds of ripping metal barely made it through her damaged ears until they managed to clear. Struggling to get to her knees, Jyn glanced up to see that the entire corridor was basically destroyed. There were scorch marks, chunks of metal missing and gaping from the walls and the floor was littered with groaning bodies. K-2 reached down to lift her from the ground, and that was when she noticed he’d apparently lost an arm in the explosion.

“Kay!” she yelled in dismay, her voice tinny and far away.

“It does not matter,” K-2 insisted.

“Doesn’t matter? There are wires sticking out of you!”

But Kay just shook his head, ignoring the gaping hole where his left arm had once been. “Are either of you hurt?” he simply asked.

Cassian’s leg was bleeding slightly and Jyn was praying that she had only bruised something and not broken any ribs, so it seemed that K-2 had been the worst off out of the three of them. People stampeded past in fear, pushing and frantically rushing for anywhere else. Behind them, the doors had been completely blasted apart, the room beyond theirs no longer airtight. When it ultimately broke down, they would be taken down with it.

“We need to go,” Jyn insisted. 

More blasts rocked the corridor as they joined the escaping crowd. Maybe all of the doors were connected somehow, maybe the grenade had hit something essential, Jyn didn't know, but it felt like their world was exploding around them. They leapt over bodies, hurtled around corners. Every door they tried was either already sealed or the grenade had apparently damaged the locking mechanism that badly that they couldn’t be opened automatically. They were stuck.

“Force them open!” someone yelled. “It’s only broken, not sealed yet!”

But they’d sorely underestimated the strength of the sliding doors commonly found all over the galaxy. Without the electrical means to open them, physically holding them was only possible with K-2 using his entire body to brace them. With Cassian and Jyn on the other side, they yelled,

“EVERYBODY, OUT!”

People flooded through. They weren’t going to be fast enough, Jyn could tell already. Sirens were sounding, red lights flashing and she knew that they would have to let the doors close soon to prevent even more rooms from being contaminated as well.  “GO, GO, GO–” she roared, but passengers just kept on coming.

“We have to move!” Cassian said.

“Not everyone’s through–”

“Not everyone is going to get through,” he clearly hated himself for saying it, but with doors struggling to close on him Jyn didn’t fault his words. He was right.

She was about to agree they let go, when a shrill cry suddenly hit her.

Different from the others she’d heard so far, she glanced back into the room they were escaping from. That was when she noticed the small child. She was cowered under an abandoned maid droid’s trolley, couldn’t have been much older than two or three and was in utter hysterics as she hid. No amount of reassurance or coaxing was going to make her budge.

She might regret her next decision, but she made it nonetheless.

“What are you–”

“If I don’t make it,” she said grimly, shoving the plans at her belt into Cassian’s hands. “Thanks for everything.”

And she kissed him hard before running back into the dying room.

“JYN, NO,” she heard Cassian scream, but she ignored him. She concentrated on nothing but the scared kid, skidding to a halt next to the trolley and pulling the little girl out and into her arms. She had minutes,  _seconds_. The girl clung to her as she threw herself back towards the door. She staggered through and K-2 and Cassian immediately reeled back, the doors slamming shut and sealing. Cassian caught them before she could keel over completely with the kid and he was naturally utterly furious.

“ _Thanks for everything_?!” he snarled. “Thanks for _fucking_ everything – that’s all you were going to say?”

“Well, sorry I was a little pressed for time!” Jyn yelled back, still hugging the girl. “What, did you want an entire speech?”

“I wanted you to stay alive, not risk yourself like that!”

“I couldn’t leave her–”

Cassian gave a loud groan of exasperation, but still pressed a rough kiss to her forehead around the head of the little girl. They had to pause the argument to escape immediate danger, but thankfully it didn’t take long to run into a main corridor full of people all trying to climb up to the higher levels, and Jyn could pass off the girl to someone who recognised her. She didn’t know what language they were speaking, but it was clear that the family was at least grateful.

Jyn tried not to think about all the other people who she hadn’t been able to save.

Cassian wasted no time ripping into her once more, voice carefully controlled and yet absolutely livid at the same time.

“You risked everything, Jyn.  _Everything._ ”

“I gave you the plans before–”

“I don’t care about the FUCKING plans!” He lost all sense of control as he just straight up yelled. “I care about YOU!”

She closed her eyes.

“You can't say that. Your assignment–” 

“Those plans can burn in hell if it means you’ll still be alive!” Cassian thundered over her. 

She stepped forward and launched into his arms. She pushed her head into his shoulder, Cassian staggering back a little on unsteady legs. Despite how exhausted she was, how much her ribs hurt, how much her chest ached for Kes and Shara, she felt the warmth spreading through to her toes.

She knew. 

* * *

 

They were finally losing the bridge.

So far they’d been able to stall for time, but when they’d lost the second to last generator, all pretences of stalling had gone down the drain. Almost all personal had hastily evacuated the bridge by this point, chairs left swinging and ready to fight for themselves amongst of the horde of passengers still trying to escape. Rohn was about to leave himself when he noticed Captain Smyth still standing at the helm, facing the open viewport.

“Captain?”

She barely registered his voice. They hadn’t opened the viewport on purpose; it had opened automatically when the mechanisms had failed and now, they could see everything. The observation deck was as black as the space surrounding it, bodies of those who had been still trapped inside floating aimlessly. Directly below them, the promenade was starting to go too, little by little, forcing everyone further back towards the stern of the ship. The bridge was practically screaming, the monitors cutting out first and then the inevitable sealing sirens going off, but still Captain Smyth didn’t move.

“Captain!” Rohn darted forward, yanking on her arm. “We have to go!”

“Wasn’t she beautiful?” Smyth just murmured, barely heard under all the noise. “You go, officer. You’ve done your duty.”

But he hadn’t. Rohn got it. Smyth was being forced to watch her ship crumble under her command, witnessing endless lives being lost because of her negligence. Unwilling to lose speed while navigating hyper-links, paired with Rohn’s ignoring of updating their systems… they had caused this. This was their doing.

He stopped pulling on her.

“With all due respect, Captain,” Rohn said. “I’d rather stay with you.”

Smyth glanced at him, but just accepted it without question.

Rohn didn’t regret his decision at all until he heard the unmistakable  _clang_ of the bridge doors sealing shut.

* * *

 

Access to the upper decks of  _Titanic_  was still being blocked off by crew. The only difference now was that all crew members seemed to have abandoned their posts, leaving behind large panicking crowds of mostly third-class passengers and their children. Jyn stopped eventually, despite Cassian pulling on her and K-2 struggling to skid to a halt. 

“We have to do something,” she insisted.

“Jyn, we don’t have time –”

“You’re a rebel, aren’t you?” she said, turning to him. “You’re supposed to be about restoring peace to the galaxy, but  _this_ –” She gestured to the nearest staircase full of screaming, crying people. “–this isn’t peace. This is systematic murder, and you know it.”

“If we don’t get those plans out of here, then we’re going to have much bigger problems.”

“You couldn’t live with yourself doing nothing before,” Jyn said.

Cassian swore under his breath, glancing away, but he had to know she was right. He had a hand pressed down hard on the wound on his upper thigh and honestly, Jyn knew they probably both looked and felt like shit right now, but they had to do  _something_. Even though these people probably had little chance anyway, with the doors sealed they had zero chance, and that wasn’t something she was willing to live with knowing that they could have done something about it. She snagged the blaster that they had stolen from Krennic out from his waist belt and he sighed.

“ _Fine_.”

Jyn managed a grin.

“LET US THROUGH,” K-2SO barked, ploughing his way through the crowd. Unsurprisingly, no one wanted to get in the way of a hulking Imperial security droid with one arm, so they moved pretty damn quickly. Jyn and Cassian hurried after, pounding up the stairs that led to the sealed off doors.

“So what are we dealing with here?” Jyn demanded once they reached the top.

“Bloody crew locked the doors! We can’t override it!” a rather frustrated and scared looking Twi’lek told them.

“Can we blast them open?”

“Reinforced,” he shook his head. “your blaster won’t do shit.”

“Then it looks like I’m slicing through,” Jyn handed the blaster back to Cassian. “I broke into a safe, this should be easy.”

But as she pulled out the scramble key that had at some point gone from belonging to Cassian to belonging to her, she quickly realised that it was going to be more difficult than she thought. With the pressure of at least a hundred lives resting on her, all craning their heads up the stairs and watching her every move, with the time constraints and the certainty that they were all doomed anyway, Jyn found that she could barely keep her hands steady. She knelt down to get the best angle at the locking mechanism and prayed to the Force that it wasn’t too damaged. Her head felt fuzzy, dizzy, almost like that one time she had gotten drunk off a bottle of Corellian Whiskey that she had stolen from Krennic's private suite as a 14-year-old. When you got to the point of where you felt like you were tipping over, even when you were staying still. 

When the lights suddenly failed down their hallway, the screams of panic were immediate.

“I can’t see,” she struggled to keep her voice under control.

She may have given up right there and then. Instead, she felt two hands clamp onto her shoulders, one cold and un-yielding, the other strong and warm. They both held her, and she knew that K-2 and Cassian were right behind her, reacting instinctively to keep her going.

“There is residual light from the corridor beyond ours,” K-2’s painfully logical voice said. “Give your eyes time to adjust.”

“You can do it,” Cassian whispered, pressing his lips to her hairline.

And she did. It took longer than she would have liked, but K-2 and Cassian didn’t let her go and when the scramble key finally lit up with five little green lights, she cried out in delight. The doors slid open with a satisfying _swoosh_ , pouring out life-saving light from the corridors beyond.

“Go!” she yelled.

They had to press their backs flat to the staircase walls to avoid getting swept up with the crowd. Everyone sprinted, yelling 'thank you's at them in a hundred different languages as they passed. Jyn eyed the scramble key still left plugged into the locking mechanism for a moment, before turning her back on it and tugging on Cassian’s and K-2’s remaining arm.

“Come on, we can’t afford to wait!”

Back down the stairs the way they had originally come, they eventually found their own still-lit area leading towards the hangar, but it was clear that things were becoming dire now. Turns out the drunk, tipping feeling she had felt before hadn't just been because of her fragile state of mind.  _Titanic_  was actually starting to physically tilt as clearly somewhere deep within the ship, stabilizers were failing and nothing was working to keep the ship level anymore. With so many people running to the stern to escape and nothing to hold down the bow, they started skidding and sliding as the hallways tilted dangerously down. Anything not held down started falling with them, cleaning droids and maid carts, broken debris and people who had slipped, anything was fair game. It felt a little surreal, and Jyn could only think of the suspension chamber that her father had used in the lab on Eadu. She had watched him test certain materials to ensure that they would reacted appropriate for the conditions of space with wide eyes, her nine-year-old self even asking to be put through the chamber to see what it felt like. Now she knew what it felt like.

She didn’t like it.

By the time they had reached the hangar once more, they were at such an angle that they had to hold onto the edge of the door frame to keep from plummeting into the remaining shuttles.

“Krennic’s is gone!” Jyn shouted over the crash of an HWK-1000 light freighter slowly sliding into its neighbour, eyes desperately scanning the room. “LJ and his other bodyguards must have taken off without him!”

“Lucky for some,” Cassian said. “Wait, THAT ONE, there!” He pointed out the nearest shuttle. Despite being locked in place when originally docked, the force of _Titanic_ was starting to pull it down just like all the others. They were not far from vertical at this point. If they were going to survive this, they were going to have to make a fifteen foot drop onto the ship before it moved, sticking the landing and breaking their way inside, all before it ultimately fell and crashed.

Far below them on the other side of the hangar, a shuttle exploded as it hit the far wall.

“There’s no way we’re jumping that,” Jyn shook her head.

“ _We have to_ ,” Cassian reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it too tight. “We’re doing this, because we have to at least try. You jump, I jump, ok?”

Kriffing hell, she was going to die.

“You jump, I jump,” she repeated.

They leapt into the hangar.

K-2SO landed first, creating a significant dent in the poor ship’s hull. Cassian was next, absorbing the fall probably how he had been trained to do with the rebellion, but Jyn would have skidded right over the top of the shuttle if K-2 hadn’t reached out and snagged the back of her shirt at the last second. He hauled her back onto the ship’s side and her heart that had been lodged in her throat calmed down slightly.

“Thanks!” she yelled.

They didn’t have time for anything else. The sirens that had followed them the entire length of the ship had finally reached the end, and they were screaming, flashing red as K-2 hacked the loading platform to open and let them in. They all dropped inside, the jump not nearly as terrifying as their original one into the hangar, seeing as the loading bay of the ship wasn’t quite as large. Cassian slammed his hand into a panel next to their heads, the loading platform closing on the red lights. It was still unnerving to be in something that was essentially completely sideways, their walls now the ceiling and the doorways now horizontal to climb through. K-2 immediately climbed awkwardly up into the cockpit and she heard him picking up an intercom,

“Cassian, I am going to attempt to contact General Draven! Perhaps we can transmit the plans–”

Before he could even finish, the hangar suddenly went black.

Jyn could feel Cassian’s eyes on her, even though it was impossible to see them in the dark. They both clambered upright on their strained legs, climbing blindly across a sideways ladder until they were both emerging into what Jyn figured was the cockpit. There was no residual light this time. There was no dim outline of the droid in front of them, absolutely nothing left to illuminate anything until Cassian eventually found a pocket knife deep within his jacket that had a small red-light torch attached to it. In the glow, they could just see that the hangar had finally gone. Right at the stern of the ship, Jyn figured that the others had to be thinking the same thing as her:

 _Titanic_  was officially dead.

“That’s it,” she said, quietly. “No more power. Everything is gone.”

“There are bodies out there,” Cassian added, holding up his light as close to the view screen as possible. “I don’t even want to imagine how many were still on board.”

For a moment, the three of them were deadly silent, unable to say a thing.

Then, the landing gear that was outside and holding them to the hangar floor clearly gave way.

Jyn had never found herself in a turbolift that had broken down before, but she had a feeling that it would have felt a little like then. There was nothing stopping the fall, nothing that they could do except hold onto each other and brace for impact. Jyn could only imagine their shuttle falling through the hangar with all the others, imagine exploding into a crisp at the bottom, or else being crushed as something else landed on top of them.

She closed her eyes and clung to Cassian.

They hit another shuttle on the way down. The impact slammed them into the floor as they tipped, their world suddenly back upright again. Incredibly, it seemed that they had hit a build-up of other smashed shuttles and were being wedged in at a slight angle, finding themselves slowing until eventually, the screeching of metal stopped.

Jyn breathed hard, face still pressed into the floor of the cockpit, nose throbbing.

“SOUND OFF,” K-2’s voice demanded. “WHO’S NOT DEAD?”

“Me,” Cassian called.

“At this point I wish I was,” Jyn groaned.

She rolled onto her back, turning her head and noticing the precarious situation they were in through the view screen. Any second they could move an inch and continue on to their fiery deaths, but for now it seemed that they were quite stuck. She didn’t know whether to be thankful or not. Cassian breathed hard next to her, and he rolled over onto his side to face her.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“I feel like I’ve been smashed face first into a brick wall,” Jyn mentioned. “but otherwise, no more hurt than I was before. You?”

He shook his head. He reached up with a hand and gently nudged her nose as he wiped underneath it. She hissed and his hand came away with spots of blood.

“Bleeding?”

“Doesn’t look broken.”

“Well,” Jyn sighed. “I suppose I have that to be thankful for.”

Slowly, they picked themselves up from the cockpit floor. Cassian had climbed to his feet and only took two steps towards K-2 over at the control panel when the entire ship gave an almighty groan. He stumbled back immediately, Jyn’s hands splaying out on instinct, although there wasn’t much to grab. Unwilling to move any more in case their shifting weight caused them to fall, Jyn stayed stock still while Cassian slowly, tentatively, stepped back towards her.

The ship stayed still.

“Are you all right over there?” Cassian called over to K-2.

“I am fine,” K-2 declared. “Aside from still only having one arm, of course.”

“What do we do now?” Jyn asked.

“I’d say check for damage,” Cassian responded, slowly sinking back down onto the floor by her side. “but I don’t want us to move around more than necessary. I guess if there had been a hull breach we’d know about it by now.”

“But there’s no power,” Jyn asked. “Is there?”

K-2SO didn’t even have to look at the control panel.

“Most ships throughout the galaxy are designed so that the gravity, pressure and air filtration systems run seperately to the main engine so that in the event of a power failure we do not suffocate.”

“Something that _Titanic's_ designer should have taken notes about,” Jyn scoffed under her breath. 

“ _Titanic's_ design was unique," K-2 could have been reading from a holonet article. “With multiple generators, they didn't think it was possible to completely lose power." 

“Either way, where does that leave us?" Cassian quickly asked. 

If it was possible for K-2 to appear forlorn, he managed it. “This craft is a particularly old model. The air filtering system is entirely run off the main engine. Which was clearly broken in the fall. This shuttle is also very definitely dead.”

They had been so close.  _So close_. They had survived the entire ship losing power, they had survived this much, only for them to eventually die trapped here together and with the plans ready to go down with them. Uncountable numbers of lives were at stake, billions upon billions if the Death Star was unleashed on the galaxy and it was all going to happen because they just hadn’t been quick enough.

“So many people…” she tried not to choke. “Kes and Shara…”

“It will not help to think about them,” K-2 pointed out.

“SHUT UP,” Jyn suddenly snapped. “What else can we do at this point–?”

Cassian reached out and grabbed her hand, quieting her.

“In an emergency,  _Titanic_  would have sent out distress signals to any ships also currently in the area,” he mentioned, voice low as if it might help keep them calm. “Help will be coming.”

“But no one will know we’re still in here,” Jyn said. “Face it, we’re totally fucked–”

“Not if we can get a message out,” Cassian insisted. “Kay, is there any back-up generator on board?”

“Probably,” K-2 shrugged. “Although whether it was also damaged in the crash is unknown.”

“We won’t know until we try,” Cassian insisted.

They couldn’t do much to help since they were stuck on the other side of the cockpit. All they could do was watch as K-2 plugged into the control panel and attempted to get the back-up generator going. 

They soon discovered a snag in the plan. It indeed turned on, and it was a relief to have proper lighting for a moment, except the thing with back-ups were that they were designed to hold on until the main could be fixed. Their major feature was not longevity and it appeared they had two options: they could send out a message, and not have enough power left to recyle air long enough until a rescue, or have enough air, but potentially still die anyway since they would not have the power to send something out to let people know they were there at all. 

“We have to wait it out,” Jyn eventually voiced aloud the ultimate conclusion that apparently no one else wanted to say. “We just have to wait and hope that we're lucky enough that someone comes before we run out of air.”

It settled over them like a haze. Jyn’s nose was still throbbing and after sitting still, she could barely move without her muscles screaming with pain. She glanced over at Cassian who was staring at her a little too hard. It made her narrow her eyes slightly, especially when she noticed his hand graze over the stolen blaster that was still wedged into his waist.

“In that case,” he said, slowly. “There’s something else we can do.”

“What?”

He cringed. “You’re not going to like it.”

“Tell me anyway,” Jyn rolled her eyes. What the hell else did they have to lose?

Cassian took a deep breath.

“You kill me.”

Jyn blinked for a moment. She almost wanted to laugh.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“I’m serious,” he said. “If I’m dead, there’s only one person breathing. Higher chance that you’ll survive.”

“I’m not going to – I  _won’t_  – Cassian–”

She punched him hard.

“ _Kriff_ , Jyn,” Cassian complained, holding his shoulder.

“Don’t EVER suggest something like that again!” she yelled. “FUCK YOU, Cassian!”

“I only meant–”

“I don’t care,” she shouted in his face. “Remember when you said that to me?  _I don’t care_ , well the same goes for me!” She leapt at him, snatching the blaster and flinging it across the cockpit. It smacked into K-2’s metal challis with a _clang_ before clattering to the floor.

The ship gave a soft rumble.

“Hey!” K-2 complained.

“Sorry,” Jyn threw back at him. “I was making a point.”

Cassian crawled over closer to her though, clearly noticing the tears that she was struggling to hold back. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, gathering her up and hauling her body into his lap. She buried her face in his shirt as he held her, pressing his lips to her hair and whispering, “ _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I won’t mention it again…_ ”

* * *

Time ceased to have any meaning.

It could have been 6 minutes or 6 hours. They lost track as they waited, as they sat and hoped and panicked and hoped again. There was really no telling how much air they were going to get out of this shuttle, how long it could potentially hold out for and how long they would have recycled air until the back-up generator ultimately gave out anyway. Though all her knowledge told her that talking would use up more, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t sit in the dark and stay silent, so her and Cassian sat back to back and talked. They talked about their lives before they had stepped onto the  _Titanic_ , of Cassian as a child back on Fest, of Jyn’s life growing up on one Imperial base after another. They spoke of successes and failures, of the people who mattered to them, and the ones they hadn’t been able to save. They felt fine up until what felt like a couple hours in.

Then, they started to get tired.

K-2 ordered them to stay upright and they did for as long as possible. But eventually, Jyn simply hadn’t been able to hold herself up anymore. She had fallen down first, Cassian falling next to her without her weight against his back to counter his. She stared at the ceiling of the cockpit and searched for his hand in the dark.

She smiled when she felt him squeeze her fingers back.

“Did you ever think you’d end up here?”

“Here with you?” Cassian replied. “Never.”

“Me either,” she mentioned. "but if I had to die with someone, I'm glad I'm dying with you."

“Hey,” Cassian said. “Don’t – don’t go saying things like that now. We can still…” 

“No one’s coming, Cassian,” Jyn’s world was starting to spin again. She wanted to close her eyes against the spots, but she felt Cassian’s fingernails digging into her hand and they opened again. “No one’s coming–”

“They’re coming. We just have to hope.”

“What use is hope, Cassian?”

“Rebellions are built on hope, Jyn.”

She stayed quiet at that. He pinched her hand again.

“Ow.”

“Stay with me.”

“I’m still here.”

Suddenly, the lights turned on.

So used to the dark, Jyn flinched against it. The cockpit lit up and she groaned out in protest, turning to try and see. “What the hell’s happening?” she whined.

“I cannot stand to see this.”

“Kay!” Cassian’s voice was suddenly sharp. Sharp enough to worry her. She saw the one-armed droid over at the control panel and Cassian practically clawed his way over her body in his attempt to get up and reach him. Her brain couldn’t think fast enough to figure out what he was doing, but evidently Cassian’s could and he yelled,

“Stop! I can see what you’re–”

“What is it?” Jyn said in alarm.

“He’s using his own supply to power the back-up generator!” Cassian said, voice uncharacteristically shrill.

“I am not,” K-2 huffed. “Honestly, Cassian. I am using my own power supply to power the back-up generator's so that I can send out a message to the starship  _Carpathia_ , which has just arrived on the scene. Statistically, this is the only scenario where you have a chance of survival.”

“But you’ll die!” Jyn said.

“Transmitting this message will drain me completely of power, yes,” K-2 nodded. “and the transmission will probably cause a power surge that permanently damages my ability to recharge. But I am a droid, I cannot die. And I probably needed a new body anyway,” he added, glancing down where his arm used to be.

Even if they’d had the strength to reach him, their precarious position meant that they had to stay put. They were forced to simply stay and watch, screaming at K-2 to stop, to not sacrifice himself for this, that they would find another way. Even as Jyn yelled, however, she knew it was useless. There _was_ no other way. K-2SO was nothing if not logical and logic told him this was their best shot. “Oh, we’re in luck!” he called over to them. “I can see several other ships that are also in the area, including  _Tantive IV_. It seems that the princess is here.”

Jyn had no idea what princess was supposed to be coming come to their rescue. She almost wondered if she was delirious from lack of oxygen. However, Cassian’s eyes lit up enough that she knew he must recognise who K-2 meant. “News of  _Titanic’s_  loss of power must have reached the rebellion,” he said. “She got here fast.” 

“The princess was on a confidential mission to Tattooine at the same time as us boarding _Titanic_. We are lucky that we were on a similar flight path.”

“We can transmit the plans to her–”

“Already doing so,” K-2 said. Jyn reached out and gripped Cassian’s hand, wincing at the sparks that came flashing out from K-2's chest plate as the control panel announced ‘ _transmitting_ …’. When the beep came that signalled that the plans had gone through, a collective sigh at least ran through the cockpit. She didn’t know where they had gone, but if Cassian and K-2 trusted this princess with them then she did too.

“That would have been broadcasted to half the galaxy,” K-2 said, his voice transmitter glitching every couple seconds.

“Leia is smart. Hopefully, she’ll get away in time.” 

“What about us?”

“Second word to  _Carpathia_  now – don’t give up–”

But she was. Her head was swimming even more now and despite the air filtration system being turned back on, she was getting overwhelmed fast. She had survived explosions and being almost trapped and watching people die right in front of her. It was enough. It was more than enough. She flexed her fingers around Cassian’s, and it was all she could manage before losing consciousness. 

The last thing she saw before her eyes closed was K-2’s empty metal body hitting the cockpit floor, still sparking and smoking. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uhhhhhhhhh..............yeah i know it's been like 4 months since i updated this and like, i'm sorry??? i've personally been slowly drifting away from rebelcaptain for a while and i lost basically all motivation to write this. However, it's been eating away at me and i literally can't leave it unfinished, so here's me, attempting to finish it finally. i figure there will just be an epilogue or something after this to just round it all up!!
> 
> for those who are still reading this, who still like this fic, who have commented all the way through: you mean the WORLD to meeeee i love you all and wish i could give you the biggest of hugs x
> 
> ANYWAY they got the plans out!! and i still promise they will get picked up by carpathia and will survive to the last chapter hahaha. I also apologise for kay, but Look, he'll have a back up somewhere, he'll be all right lol. 
> 
> again, pls ignore all gaping plot holes and convient plot rescues lol. i did way too much googling of spacecraft and basically 100% of what i discovered was contradictory to what i needed to write so you know what, just pretend the rules are different in the star wars universe lmao thanks yall 
> 
> i really hope you liked it tho, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought!  
> MUCH LOVE  
> xoxo


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